"Disposing of old or empty spray paint cans" Topic

When I paint my RPG figures, I use a Halfords primer then hand paint with acrylics. For my various starships, prime, spray a base hull colour, then detail in acrylics again.

My question is this. How do people dispose of their spray cans, empty ones or especially ones that may be years old and are clogged?

Or is there a way to clear the plastic nozzles of cans still with paint in them?

We hold on to them until we have a good sized batch, then we take them to the local county's hazardous collection site.

Dan

We have a site in our town (as above).

Yep, same here. Usually twice a year there's a hazardous waste collection……you have to take it there….

You can replace the nozzle of a clogged can with the nozzle of an empty unclogged can.

Convert them into industrial terrain.

I should have said I'm in the UK, in case the suggestions above are US orientated, although I suspect there will be something similar here.

Empty cans: Check your local council recycling rules. In Portsmouth our council allows empty aerosol cans to be collected in our green bin, you just have to put the cap and nozzle in your normal rubbish!

Clogged nozzles: use old unclogged ones or buy a bag of new ones on eBay.

Our city has a hazardous waste disposal site open every Tuesday. I use it for spray paint cans, insecticides, and batteries.

Jim

I throw them in the garbage with the rest of the trash.
Occasionally I'll throw them in the recycle bin.

Errr…my response is a bit 'different'; it would involve hauling the cans down to an abandoned gravel pit or mine, and 'decommissioning' them from a safe distance with a shotgun or centerfire rifle.

They often contain marbles (flawed usually) or steel balls – I recover those.

Sometimes at the range.

I do my best to use every scrap op paint in them and there is never any significant propellant left. Which is vented anyway at the recycler if there is one.

If there is any real quantity of paint left I put that in a container for later use.

Same with WD or other spray products.

If they are empty, local hazmat ordinances allow them to be thrown away, otherwise, you have to go to the recycle place when they deem to allow you to dispose of "household hazmat" (once or twice monthly, and OF COURSE the line is faaaaar into the street for those days because they do not allow it every day.)

house paint is similar. If you leave the lid off and let it go solid, you can throw it away in the garbage. If it is still wet, it is a hazard and you need to get in line like all the other suckers when they tell you they have decided to accept it.

As one can tell, I have little patience for unreasonable, forced behavior modification.

(UK) I take to my local recycling centre.

If, every time you finish using a can, you turn it upside down and hold the button down until it sprays clear, you'll avoid many clogs.

When they're empty, we usually take them to a safe outdoor place where we can use them for plinking.

our council recycles them

I just throw mine in the Hudson, I figure the PCBs will take care of them…

When we get the old rowboat filled with enough of'em, we'll send them out on the pond in a grand Viking funeral…

When I was a kid, we would shoot them with 22's.

They used to be quite dangerous to people handling trash, but I think that may have been when incineration was the norm, and they could be little bombs.

Perq of the place I just retired from was they had a fellow who'd collect them up, put them in a device that enclosed the can and puncture it.

Turned out he is a fellow gamer. 'Doug, are you spraying these on campus?' 'No, just bringing them in from the shop.' 'Oh, well, that's okay.' ;->=

On the other hand, I've never found the hazmat line onerous, and I'm fine with being the considerate one.

Doug

Save the old nozzles for kitbashing projects. If the can is truly empty, you can kitbash them into various pieces of terrain if you wish. If not empty, consign them to the local hazmat collection system.

Parts is parts, I say!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
silent-death.mx