A circular solution to paint recycling

英国每年销售的油漆超过3亿升，其中约有5500万升未使用。只有1%的废物被再利用或再制造；其余的则进入家庭废物流，进入垃圾填埋场或作为危险废物处理，这给地方当局带来了巨大的成本。目前还没有回收废旧油漆的技术。在英国，除了每年处理的大量油漆外，估计还有1亿升的油漆存放在车棚和车库里。这是一个严重的环境和经济问题。目前，只有三分之一的家庭废物回收中心（HWRC）接受废油漆作为分类废物；提供收集和分类油漆的设施的直接成本超过了回收利用与焚烧和填埋相比估计节省40%的成本。除非找到重新使用和回收这些废物的新技术路线，否则它们将继续被处置到堆填区、焚化、储存或非法倾倒。通过这个为期18个月的工业研究项目，我们将开发一种处理80%未使用的水性涂料的工艺，包括不适合重复使用或再制造的废料，为用作颜料和隔热材料制造的功能性填料提供替代原料来源。废油漆的价值将使其重新被标记为有价值的原材料，为提供废物收集设施提供经济激励，并为循环经济做出重大贡献。

Over 300 million litres of paint is sold in the UK every year, with approximately 55 million litres remaining unused. Only 1% of this waste is reused or remanufactured; the rest goes into the domestic waste stream, going into landfill or disposed of as hazardous waste at substantial cost to local authorities. There is currently no technology available for recycling waste paint. As well as the huge volume of paint that is disposed of annually in the UK, there is an estimated 100 million litres stored in sheds and garages. This represents a significant environmental and economic problem.Currently, only a third of household waste recycling centres (HWRC) accept waste paint as a segregated waste; the immediate cost of providing facilities to collect and sort the paint outweighs the estimated 40% saving presented by recycling versus incineration and landfilling. Unless new technological routes for reusing and recycling these wastes are found, they will continue to be disposed to landfills, incineration, stockpiles or illegally dumped.Through this 18-month industrial research project, we will develop a process to treat the 80% of unused paint that is water-based, including the waste that is otherwise unsuitable for reuse or remanufacturing, providing an alternative source of raw materials for use as pigments and as functional fillers for thermal insulation manufacture. The valorisation of waste paint will allow it to be relabelled as a valuable raw material, providing an economic incentive to provide waste collection facilities and making a significant contribution to the circular economy.