Recycled paint means savings for Gresham church

Metro program makes colorful use of discarded paint

By Shannon Wells

The Gresham Outlook, Nov 2, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

John Heck, grounds manager of Metro Church in Gresham, says he was impressed with MetroPaint.

Carole Archer / The Gresham Outlook

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The midday sun casts a soothing glow against the majestic wood structure on the hill overlooking Gresham Station. Metro Church of Christ is a fresh vision in cream and royal-blue trim. Who would suspect those pleasing hues arose from a recycled amalgam of multi-colored paints once destined for the Dumpster?

The church is coated in MetroPaint, a 100-percent recycled latex product processed and sold by Metro regional government. The MetroPaint program collects discarded paint at area collection events, screens it for quality and mixes it in 300-gallon batches.

Metro sells 15 colors – beige, khaki, green, mauve and pink, among them – depending on their availability in 1- and 5-gallon pails to a growing list of residential and commercial customers. Prices are subject to change, but generally range from $5 to $9 for a 1-gallon container and from $15 to $40 for a 5-gallon container. That’s quite a savings when you consider that the standard price at one Gresham store is $22.95 for a gallon of exterior paint and $147.25 for a 5-gallon can.

The 16-year-old program recently received the first recycled paint certification from Green Seal, a Washington, D.C.-based independent environmental standards organization. MetroPaint was also recognized by the Master Painters Institute, a leading national paint-testing organization.

“We’re the first recycled paint to be certified,” said Jim Quinn, Metro’s Hazardous Waste Program manager. “The Green Seal and MPI certifications assure buyers that MetroPaint is environmentally friendly and performs as well as new paint.”

One man who’s spent months working with it is pleased with the results.

“I was impressed,” said John Heck, grounds manager for Metro Church, as he applied finishing touches on the paint job he started in August. “The paint has a lot of solids in it. It’s very thick, which makes it easier to cover.”

Quinn calls MetroPaint the “largest and most sophisticated” municipal paint-recycling program in the country.

Metro collects paint at various area locations on weekends between March and November. At the Ross Island processing plant in Portland, a trained staff of four – augmented by several workers from DePaul Industries rehabilitation center – screens hundreds of paint cans for quality, appearance and the absence of lead and mercury.

Approved paints of similar, but not exact, colors are mixed in one of 15 sinks. The hybrid paint dribbles from a pipe into a 300-gallon bin. From there, it’s filtered three times and funneled into the 1- and 5-gallon containers that feature MetroPaint’s maroon and yellow logo.

“The process is really low-tech,” said Karen Kane, Metro spokesperson.

Perhaps, but the program has come a long way since its humble debut in 1991.

“We’d pour the paint in a drum and mix it with a boat paddle,” said Quinn, with a chuckle.

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