York County has partnered with Newport News-based paint recycling company Coastal VA Environmental Coatings to help reduce the waste of latex paints. The county will now accept latex paint in certain colors from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Waste Management Recycling Center, 145 Goodwin Neck Road in Yorktown.
Waste Services Manager Laurie Halperin said the initiative goes back a few years, but started to come to fruition when waste management first met with the CVEC team at a regional clean business breakfast last year.
CVEC was started in 2017, according to its website. Halperin said the company gave York County a tour of their facility and offered to partner to recycle waste paint. “Any time there’s an opportunity for us to recycle something that can be recycled, we definitely want to look into that possibility,” said Samantha McNeil, outreach coordinator with the Department of Public Works.
McNeil said waste management will accept only white, off-white, red, blue, yellow and gray paint colors, because they will be mixed with like-colors to create new paint. The paint also cannot be chunky, have a hardened consistency or have a bad odor. The facility will not accept oil-based paint, paint in a rusty can or a can without a label. A person cannot drop off more than five gallons of old paint per day.
The partnership with CVEC is not a contracted service and does not require the county to pay for it, Halperin said. CVEC will regularly pick up the paint from the facility. “No, we’re not paying anything, nor are we making any money,” Halperin said. “It’s a win-win situation for both of us.”