Elected officials and paint industry leaders recently gathered at the Miller Senate Office Building in Annapolis, Maryland, for a news conference highlighting the launch of Maryland’s newest recycling program, which enables households and businesses to recycle leftover paint, stain and varnish.
The program is operated by PaintCare, a Washington-based nonprofit organization created by paint companies through the American Coatings Association (ACA) to manage leftover paint in states that have enacted paint stewardship laws. PaintCare’s program, which begins operations in Maryland on April 1, will feature a network of paint drop-off locations including paint and hardware retail stores and local government facilities.
PaintCare says the program was made possible under the paint stewardship law that passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore in 2024. Under this law, paint manufacturers are required to develop and implement a cost-effective paint stewardship program that will reduce the generation of leftover paint, promote paint reuse and recycling and manage the postconsumer paint waste stream using environmentally sound management practices. Oversight for the state’s program will be provided by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE)…