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Need more Snow Drift, Sand Dollar, Rawhide or Brick Red from MetroPaint, the Portland region’s paint-recycling program? If so, you’d better get it before year’s end.
After more than 30 years, Metro, the regional planning agency, will shutter MetroPaint because sales don’t cover expenses, a gap that has been widening. The program will stay open until the end of the year and maybe longer, according to a memo obtained by WW that describes the closure.
Beloved by DIY painters, MetroPaint contributed to Oregon’s reputation for environmental stewardship, along with the Bottle Bill. (That innovation, meantime, is under fire from critics who say bottle-redemption sites attract drug users and foster crime.)
“Operating expenses have been outpacing revenue at an increasing rate, and addressing outdated processing equipment would have required significant investments in automation, resulting in substantial workforce reductions,” Marta McGuire, director of waste prevention and environmental services at Metro said in an email to staff.
MetroPaint sells for $18 a gallon, about half the cost of other brands, Metro says. During its life, the program has given away more than 200,000 gallons of paint at end-of-season events. It has sent donated and discounted gallons to Ghana, Gambia, Canada, Mexico and Togo. MetroPaint is often used to cover graffiti. Metro has donated more than 12,000 gallons to the city of Portland to cover tags.
Metro’s waste department started collecting unwanted latex paint in 1991. A year later, it began coloring 55-gallon drums of the stuff and giving it away to nonprofits and consumers. MetroPaint turned into a business in 1999, when Metro opened a recycling facility in Oregon City and began selling by the gallon in a broader range of colors.
The program led to the creation of PaintCare, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that manages paint collection there and in 10 states, including Colorado, Minnesota and Maine.
Metro “looked closely at ways to keep the program running, but we were unable to find a feasible solution to the financial and operational challenges,” McGuire wrote.
Metro is examining ways to keep MetroPaint staff employed elsewhere in the organization, which serves Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, McGuire wrote.
