Lambeth's Community Re>Paint is being run by a partnership between the borough council and Lambeth Community Recycling, and sees leftover paint given to community groups to spruce up public spaces. In the four months since it began, the project has been inundated with donations of paint.
 Tom Varney (left) and Angelo Marinoni use donated paint from the Lambeth Community Re>Paint scheme to give Vassall Ward Youth and Community Project a makeover |
Natasza Letowt-Vorbek, assistant manager at Lambeth Community Recycling, said: “We have been amazed by the volume of paint donated by locals and it's great to know that instead of ending up in landfill, it is being put to good use.”
Over 300 million litres of paint are sold every year in the UK, and it is thought that up to 100 million litres of leftover paint is currently being stored in households across the country. Community Re>Paint is a national scheme supported by ICI, Biffaward, Dulux and the Community Fund.
In Lambeth, the project has seen St Bede’s Catholic School, St Bernadette Junior School, Milkwood Road Residents' Association, Solas Anois women's refuge, the Prisoners' Families Friends Service and the Vassell Ward Youth and Community Project all benefiting from the donations of paint.
Lambeth Community Recycling is part of the Ealing Community Transport Group, a non-for-profit organisation that provides recycling services to one in six Londoners and markets over 44,000 tonnes of recycled material per year.
As well as Lambeth, where 70,000 households now have access to kerbside recycling, ECT has contracts with local councils including West Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and the London Boroughs of Ealing, Brent, Richmond, Lewisham and Hounslow, where they have achieved a Beacon status recycling service.
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