Purchase Helps Divert Unwanted Paint from Landfills
Working with GreenSheen, a leader in paint recycling, thousands of cans were dropped off by community members.
More than 200 local community members took advantage of a free paint collection event today, preventing several thousand cans of unwanted paint from entering landfills.
Purchase College partnered with GreenSheen, a latex paint retailer that recycles the paint and all the can components.
The effort is part of New York State’s Postconsumer Paint Collection Program operated by PaintCare.
Members of Purchase College’s Office of Sustainability and other staff and faculty collected the paint from community members at no cost to the consumers.
The event yielded the collection of…
- 32 cubic yard boxes filled with cans
- 25,754 lbs of latex-, acrylic-, and water-based paints and coatings
- 2,550 lbs of oil-based paints and coatings
“Thanks to events like this, we’re able to divert thousands of gallons of harmful substances from landfills, which prevents them from entering our groundwater, drinking water, and overall reducing pollution,” says Grace Afflerbach, Sustainability Coordinator at Purchase College.
This event is further demonstration of Purchase College’s firm committment to sustainability. In 2008, the college was an original signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, with a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2025, and it joined the United Nations University Global Coalition in furthering the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2021.