Disposal of used solvents.

[markharrison]

I have been doing a lot of painting using enamel paints and I have a lot of used mineral turpentine from cleaning up brushes etc. Being a good citizen I have saved this into another container.

How should I responsibly get rid of this stuff?

[ozwinner]

With a match!!


Al

[echnidna]

Set it aside for a month or so and most of the paint will settle to the bottom. You can then slowly pour off the clean turps and keep it just for cleaning brushes or thinning undercoat.

[ozwinner]

My Idea has more......................more...............Ooopph.


Al :eek:

[Wood Borer]

Mark,

I keep a bottle of waste turps and dirty metho for when I have trouble lighting a fire when I go camping. Works OK but you would want to make sure all the nasties were gone before you barbequed on the fire.

I think local councils have facilities for waste hazardous chemicals.

[simon c]

The 5 stage process for dealing with waste is:

Refuse (don't take it in the first place)
Reduce (use as little as you can)
Reuse (put it to another use)
Recycle (send it away to be reclaimed)
Refuse (through it in the bin)

Note that recycling comes very low in the process because there is a lot of energy used in recyling which can be avoided.

You should be reusing the turps as much as possible. I keep 4 tall and thin glass bottles that I use to separate the paint from the turps. It normally ends up looking pretty clear but yellow.

If you have to dispose of it. Empty, dry tins of paint residue can normally be disposed of in the household rubbish (but it varies by council).

In Victoria there are bi-annual collections at key points around the state (eg Doncaster for the Eastern suburbs) and they will take any liquid chemical.
http://www.ecorecycle.vic.gov.au

For national advise on recycling, you coul dcheck with www.pacia.org.au

[Jon]

Mark,

I don't know where you are in Sydney but the waste disposal plant at Eastern Creek has a drop off point for household volumes. I am sure the other plants scattered around the metro area also has similar.

also, as echinda said, let it settle and pour off the clean turps for reuse.

[markharrison]

Well the re-use idea would be great except that there seems to be no or little settlement of residue. That is to say, it still looks a lot less than usable for even cleaning a brush let alone using it to thin paint, which I rarely need to do anymore.

Maybe I'm wrong and I will give it another go.

One other interesting thing about this. I have been using two different colours a blue and a yellow. The blue has a definite line at the bottom and the yellow seems to be not mixing with the blue. Strange.

[wonnie]

i always keep a couple of 'grades' of turps from washing up....the really bad first wash stuff is pretty useless but after that it is fine and settles quite well. makes it great for cleaning and i go through much less virgin turps

[simon c]

mark

decant off the top leaving as much paint residue in the bottom and then let it settle again. You could probably do this a couple of times. I find using narrow glass containers are the best for this it allows you to decant easier.

Depending on the quality of what you get left, you can use it as a first flush to get the bulk of the paint out of paint brushes and only use clean turps for the final clean.

[rod1949]

Leave it in an open container and it will eventually evaporate.