1. Environmental Footprint
Report
Potential for Recycling Paint
AkzoNobel

2. Contents
• Carbon Footprint Methodology at AkzoNobel (AN)
• Process of Paint recycling
• Various Methods of Calculating the Footprint
• How the footprint can change depending on data
• Comparisons with Virgin Footprint
• The Future of NewLife Paints and potential
problems
• Ideas for Recycling at Dulux
• Limitation of calculation
• Other potential methods
• Summary

3. CF Methodology of AN
• The existing carbon footprint of virgin paint has been
calculated in accordance with regulations from PAS
2050. These regulations state that footprint only
needs to calculated from cradle to factory gate
rather than End of Life (EoL). This could be disputed
• Carbon footprint calculator is calculated by corporate
team in Sweden, using Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) formula generated by Dr Phil Taylor
• Current footprint is calculate for an individual 5L can
of paint, but can be up scaled by incorporating all
cans from the 10 biggest selling lines by volume

4. Data
• Figures are taken from numerous places
• Dr Taylor took exact meter readings from internal
departments such as packaging and
manufacturing, but transport figures are taken at
an average. Accuracy could be improved if exact
figures for were used.
• Other figures taken from external sources, e.g.
– Thames water
– Borealis
– B&Q
– PAS 2050
– ERM

5. Totals taken from Dr Taylor
• Cradle to factory gate
3156+129+205+0.01+0+38+4064+194+223+0.06+0+589+12+252+2+0
= 8864.07
• Cradle to grave
8864.07+0+1.5+100+0.5+53+14+”0”+6+0+11+0+0.7+14
= 9064.77
• These totals prove that most energy is used in
extraction of raw materials
• 1kg of Titanium dioxide uses 4kg CO₂e
• 1kg of polymer from crude oil uses 2.6 kg CO₂e

6. • Transport plays insignificant role, as paint
is transported in bulk (5000L) in energy
efficient lorries
• According to PAS 2050 Transport in scope
three not accounted for (PAS 2050: 2011,
p20) Would have to be included for
recycling footprint
• This suggests possible misrepresentation
of recycling

7. Process of Paint Recycling
Stage 1
Paint Arrives
Stage 2
extraction
Stage 3
Mixing of
paint
Stage 4
Quality
Control
Stage 5
redistribution

8. Stage 1 – Paint arrives on site
Paint arrives unsorted in large
vats. Vat is immediately
weighed on arrival to determine
gross weight. Paint is then
sorted into like colours ( e.g.
brilliant white, magnolia, and
bright colours), paint quality
not taken into account as all is
mixed, although separation by
brand is starting to take place.
Multiple different brands are
received, from Dulux and
Crown, to B&Q own brand.
Even other companies such as
Tesco have begun to be
recycled.

9. Stage 2 – Extraction and recycling
cans
• Paint is extracted by hand and emptied into large barrels
• Cans are recycled off site, but NewLife crushes metal cans before
transportation
• Metal cans are easier to recycle. Cans incinerated in furnace and
remade, fumes from burnt off paint are captured and burnt as fuel, so
metal cans do very little harm
• Plastic cans are much harder to clean, 99% of paint must be removed.
• At the moment, New Life does this
on a very small scale, but looking to
improve. Plastic cans are shredded
then sent to landfill,
• Keith receives £5 per tonne for dirty
plastic, but up to £350 per tonne
for clean plastic.
• The cleaning of paint cans creates a
lot of waste water.

10. Stage 3 –mixing paint and added
materials
• Once paint has been extracted and separated
into like colours, the mixing process begins.
• Paint is mixed using huge mechanical
blenders, built by New Life. As the business is
beginning to expand, New Life are beginning
to sell machinery like this to clients.
• To counteract the forming of bacteria or
fungi, biocide is added to paint in small
doses, then clay thickeners are added to the
paint.
• Colour paint is often made to order, but
colour matching is done by eye, then
pigments are added for minor colour
changes.

11. Stage 4 – Quality Control
• Keith Harrison insists that the quality checks of
NewLife recycled paints are as vigorous, if not
more so, than any major paint manufacturer, and
there are many different criteria to meet before
recycled goods can be distributed.
• Quality checks with recycled paint are arguably
harder, due to the increased amount of industrial
and waste regulations. Both sets of regulations
change frequently, which makes things difficult
for NewLife Paints.

12. Stage 5 - transportation
• Once paint is checked and packaged, it is weighed before being
transported off site. This means that NewLife have an exact weight for
everything that enters and leaves the recycling process. Most paint is
still delivered to distributors (B&Q), but New Life is beginning to
establish its own online customer base.
• New Life also supply recycled paint
to other companies that sell under
their own name, as they have the
customer base to do so. Common
tactic for a start up business.
• Summary of these stages means
that transport is by far the largest
factor of this whole process

13. Calculating footprint of Recycling
• Three main methods of calculating a
recycling footprint, all of which are
relatively new and have their pros and
cons.
• Each method varies on its leniency and
allocation of responsibility. It is the
choice of management which method is
chosen, depending on how they wish to
represent the company.

14. Cut-off Method
• This method is the one
preferred by small scale
recyclers, as it gives
them the least amount
of responsibility, thus
the lowest carbon
footprint.
• This strategy declares
that emissions from
recycling include
nothing before
transportation of waste
paint.
• Whilst this is the
preferred method for
recyclers, ethically it is
not the best method, as
much of the
responsibility is shifted.

15. PEF Method
• Most widely used method, as it fits with the best
attempt so far by the EU to create a standard
approach towards foot printing.
• The guidelines are constantly under scrutiny, and
changes regularly; leads to complications in
staying up to date.
• Complicated method as responsibility is shared
between virgin paint and recycled paint
• PEF calculates the footprint of a product
throughout its life cycle, rather than cradle to
gate philosophy.

16. Forum for the Future (FF) Method
Method created by Forum for the future, as a method which includes as much
environmental responsibility as possible. Using this method, the footprint for
recycling paint includes emissions from creating virgin paint too, which
creates a very large footprint, which is then reduced through credit earned
through recycling. The results are only marginally smaller than those of virgin
paint. This is the “harshest” of the three methods.

17. Initial Carbon Footprint of New
Life Paint
• Initial Figures provided by Keith from
2011 compared to Dulux Figures from
2008 showed a huge difference: 1kg of
paint produced in gCO₂e
– AkzoNobel = 1,363.7 gCO₂e
– NewLife Paint = 71.16 gCO₂e
• The figures provided from New Life were
representative of the cut off method, and
showed a difference of almost 95%

18. Comparisons with virgin footprint
• Using new figures from November 2013,
the difference is much smaller, and using
the PEF method rather than cut off, the
difference shrinks to 47%.
• As New Life’s business continues to
expand, with contracts with big
businesses like Veolia, this difference is
likely to shrink further.

19. Comparisons with virgin footprint
• There is a margin for errors in the
comparison. Figures taken from external
sources are often estimated, or at a range.
• When assessing low carbon strategies, the
worst case scenario is used. This means that
AkzoNobel are underestimating the
footprint, and could be underselling
themselves by a substantial amount
depending on the method used

20. New Life Expansion
• New Life is currently looking at expanding on a small
scale, and using mechanical processes to replace
human labour, such as tinting machines rather than
mixing by eye.
• Keith acts as an advisor on recycling at many outfits,
including for Medisort, who may eventually take over
the process at Littlehampton, leaving Keith more
time to control the rest of the business. Currently
another recycling plant is being set up in
Birmingham, and a contract has just been secured
with the waste management company Veolia.
• Part of the reason NewLife is doing so well is because
of Keith’s flexibility, which may become problematic
should the business grow substantially.

21. Problems
• If Keith steps back from the recycling process to
manage the company, then the process looses its
expertise should things go wrong. Quality could suffer
• Past efforts by R&D to calculate recycling footprint
use the EIA created by Phil Taylor. Numbers of
emissions in EIA do not match those released by
DEFRA.
• The difference in figures could lead to a potential
problem with government regulations.
• Phil Taylor argues that the figures are so similar that
it is not a problem, but different sources and
calculations still results in lack of clarity and
confusion in interpretation.

22. Possible limitations
• Research may need to be conducted into the
potential effect of biocide in recycled paint,
and what substance might be used as a
replacement with their increasing
unpopularity.
• Dulux is marketed as a luxury brand, which
means much less room for compromise in
terms of quality, compared to NewLife.
• It is clear to see that an attempt to enlarge
the process of recycling would send
transport figures rocketing

23. Conclusions of Footprint
• Ultimately, the footprint is hard to calculate due
to various methods that can be used
• More importantly used, the process of recycling is
currently in a process of transition. Within a few
years time, technology will have changed
massively, as potentially could the size of New
Life paints.
• In five years time there could be:
– concise PEF method of calculation
– Wider recognition of method put forward by FF
– efficient process of paint extraction
– extensive recycling of plastic paint cans

24. Potential for recycling at Dulux
• There are many potential ideas for
recycling paint on a larger scale, the
difficulties lie in investigating exact
projected emissions for theoretical work.
• Problem is exacerbated in industry that is
rapidly changing anyway

25. Potential Idea 1
• Dulux fund Newlife Paints to set up small
franchises around the UK
– Depending on method of calculation, carbon
footprint of Akzo could shrink due to
recycling credit
– Small franchises would create jobs for more
people, as work is more labour intensive
– Whilst they would be localised, transport
costs would rise, which is a significant chunk
of the recycling business

26. Potential Idea 2
• Dulux fund Keith to set up factory on
Industrial Scale
– Gives Dulux superiority in the field, and lots of
positive press for green efforts
– Keith has the expertise in recycling, whilst Dulux
have expertise on the large scale and luxury
brands. Could potentially make for a powerful
combination,
– Would mean either recycling competitors paint
or paying extra to sort it for only Dulux.

27. Potential Idea 3
• Dulux retrieve and recycle their own paint using Keith as a
consultant
• Dulux pay waste management company to deliver paint back
to Dulux
• Preliminary calculations done by taking ten random post
codes and calculating the distance back to Dulux via the
local recycling centre (Dulux assumed to be factory at
Stowmarket)
• Initial estimates of retrieving paint = 33.3 KGs CO₂e for each
tonne of recycled paint transported (212.04 miles is about 98.15 *
212.04 * 8/5 g CO2e for each tonne transported, which is 33.3 kgs CO2e for each
tonne of recycled paint transported.)
• Paint sent to landfill = 700 KGs per 5l can (2008)
• Already indicates potential savings

28. Potential Idea 4
• Recycling to create a bland low quality paint, but
would create large quantities to supply projects
such as community repaint.
• Low quality reconsolidated paint could be used
for low budget projects e.g. covering up graffiti
or warehouse painting. Previous research
conducted in the USA showed success due to low
cost, but warned over health and safety
problems.
• Potential problems again with Dulux luxury brand
status, could be counteracted by funding private
project under different name

29. Problems in Calculations
Due to limited access to figures and time
available, it is not possible to accurately
calculate the environmental impact of
these ideas. However, by comparing certain
elements of emissions we know to be true,
it can be estimated where certain savings
may take place, and where costs may
increase.

30. Potential future research
• Small examples of criteria missed in carbon report,
such as onsite transport. May only be small
differences but cant be certain depending on
machinery.
• Online resources show that successful recycling
projects abroad in Canada and Australia have been as
a result of joint ventures between a cohort of
companies. May be potential in a whole industry
recycling project, or refining virgin paint.
• If quality could be assured, then large paint
manufactures could begin to recycle their own paint,
with the help of a central waste distributor

31. Other potential methods of using
waste paint
• Research conducted by Dr Taylor proved that it is possible to compost paint, however the
time taken to decompose did not comply with government regulations, so cannot be
legally recommended. Research undertaken elsewhere found composting paint can
increase growth rate of plants without trace elements rising a significant amount.
• Solvent based paint can be recycled by incineration and reusing captured gas, but
process ignored due to drop in market share of solvent based paint.
• Research shows improved durability and strength of concrete when coated with waste
latex paint (WLP), but can easily be countered by non waste coatings. Separate projects
in Australia and New Zealand both registered improvements when using WLP, but both
recognised that there is a significant knowledge gap.
• Many more examples of where waste paint can be used to enhance building materials
http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/~/media/resources/documents/publications%20and
%20research/publications/m%20-
%20p/end%20of%20life%20waste%20paint%20report%20june%202013%20pdf.pdf
• Current research conducted by Akzo into the extraction of titanium dioxide. Yet to work
out costs etc.

32. Summary of Research
• Main concluding remark is that recycling paint is still very much a work in
progress. At a time where regulations are currently changing, processes
are being refined and innovations continue to have an influence, it makes
it very hard to accurately predict the environmental impact of recycling
paint
• There are certain things that can be assumed:
– transport costs will rapidly increase whichever method of recycling is chosen
– Recycling on an industrial scale would bring major credit to AkzoNobel
– Cooperation with small businesses like NewLife is strongly advised
• It could be as long as five years before we start to see a realistic picture
of what recycling paint on a large scale would look like. The suggestion for
the short term would be to invest more UK resources in the potential of
using WLP in concrete and other building materials, and to supply more
funding to schemes such as community repaint. If the process of waste
paint composting can be accelerated, it could hold huge potential