Disposing of Old Paint

April 2011

When we bought our house, the old owners left a bunch of paint cans, some half-full in a closet. I would like to dispose of them in the most environmental way & get that space back.. Is there a recycling or disposal facility that accepts paint cans? Thank You!

If you live in Alameda County, you can take paint/paint cans and other hazardous waste to the Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste Program. They have a drop-off location next door to Pump It Up on East 7th Street in Oakland, as well as a couple others. It's super easy - you don't even have to get out of your car. See http://www.household-hazwaste.org/

For other options, search under Where Can I Recycle | Hazardous Materials | Paint - Latex or Paint - Oil Based at http://stopwaste.org (a fabulous recycling resource, if you don't know about it already). JP

Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste Facilities are described here: http://stopwaste.org/home/index.asp?page=293 stopwaste.org is the place to look for such issues, from composting to battery disposal and electronics recycling. Just be sure to check hours before you go -- they are very limited. Eric

I assume from your post that you don't want to keep them for future touch-ups. If the paint isn't that old, you can post it free on BPN marketplace, craigslist, or freecycle. If that's not an option, and it's acrylic ('latex'), I'm not sure what the current process is - probably depends on your city's garbage/recycling collector. Call them. If they are alkyd ('oil') paints, they need to go to hazardous waste collection (and previous owners should have taken care of that!) - each county has at least oneplace you can do that. RK

Sept 2007

I am looking for someone who will haul quite a few old paint cans- some with paint in them, and dispose of them legally. The commercial haulers won't take it and I want to make sure it isn't dumped somewhere. Too many paint cans

If you are in Alameda County, and you can fit them in your car, there is Waste Management disposal site in Hayward that you can take them to (open Thursdays and Fridays, check the WM website). As far as I know there is no limit on what they will take. Todd F

You can dispose of old paint cans for free through Alameda County by dropping it off at one of their sites. Here is the website with info.: www.stopwaste.org MK