I’m just getting back into modelling after a couple year hiatus, so I’ve got a few old Testors bottles & Humbrol tins that are gummed up or dried out.
I’m fairly big into recycling, so I’d prefer not to throw them out, but does the paint pose a problem? I remember having a plastic pail of asphalt sealant that had dried sealant on the sides & the recycling guys said to just throw it out. Same with the 1 gallon paint cans.
Me, I open them up and put 'em around my house or in my truck as air fresheners. I LOVE the smell of model paint in the morning! [:D]
Seriously, I just put mine in a bag and toss them into the recycling. Never had any grief about it yet.
Depending upon the jurisdiction in which you live, it might even be technically illegal to simply throw them away. The same can be said about a whole plethora of items that we commonly throw away, such as batteries, light bulbs, empty cans and bottles of various cleaning supplies, small appliances etc. My personal view is that a lot of those laws are either overkill, and/or impractical. However, even if I fully endorsed the extreme opposite side of the debate, I would probably admit that in the big scheme of things, the environmental impact caused by discarded bottles and tins of model paint would be inconsequential compared to everything else.
Andy
I reuse them. I clean them up with a paste type paint remover(follow the instucs. on can) and mix my airbrush ready paints in them. It’s nice to have that mix available later in the build for touch ups and the like. I’ve had some mixes last for a month or more sealed in the small Testors square type bottles.(I primarily work with enamels, acrylics don’t last quite as long) HTH[tup]
I sometimes do a little modeling on the road and old paint bottles are great for bringing a little bit of thinner for brush cleaning.
I file them in my circular file bin.
Regards, Rick
I guess you have to weigh the choices.
Keeping the bottles to reuse them…cleaning them with solvent or remover…how much exposure are you subjecting yourself and the environment to the chemicals you used.
Pitching them into the recycles, which may or may not be throw away at the recycling center because of the contents remaining in the bottles. Some facilities turn the glass over to a facility that burns the contaminates off, leaving only the glass residue which gets used to manufacturer other products.
Or just tossing them in with the regular trash that ends up in a landfill somewhere.
I would suggest that you turn them into the hazardous material collection point/day that many communities are now providing. Then they are disposed of properly. They may determine that they can be recycled…but you’ve done your part responsibily. Who knows you might get them back in the new shingles you reroof your house with someday.
I took some gallon cans of household paint to the hazardous disposal once & they told me I should just throw them out. I imagine they did once I left.
I’ll put them in the recycle bin. Makes more sense than just throwing them in the garbage.
I mainly use Tamiya acrilics which as you probably know come in a fairly resealable glass jar with plastic screw top lid.
I keep them and soak/clean them (soak f n water and detergent few days, they’ll come uo pretty clean). Then I use them for custommx colours, washes and the like.
You should be able to do this with Testors jars or Humbrol tins etc, obviously using an appropriate cleaning agent instead of water/detergent.
The biggest problem reusing Testors jars is the lids. Once the seal on the inside of the cap is damaged in any way its reliability for resealing is doubtful.
Metal tins are great as long as you don’t score or scratch the inside coating. Metal containers are normally treated with a liner to prevent reactions between the metal and the material it will contain. Be sure to use ‘soft’ edged items when stirring these tins if you plan on reusing them.