Greener Paint Products Have Arrived!

Companies of various sizes have developed "greener" paints and related products. The challenge is to produce paints that are durable and attractive as well as being easy to apply and clean up.

The goal when changing the formula is to reduce or eliminate toxic components such as:

• volatile organic compounds (VOC), the ingredients in paint that make application smelly
• lead and chromate
• fungicides

Large paint companies, with gentle persuasion from agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency in the US, have concentrated on developing low VOC paints. General Paint's Z-Coat is an example of a readily available no-VOC paint.

It seems to have fallen to smaller, more specialized companies to formulate and market full lines of non-toxic paints. Here is a sample of some of the products available:

• Eco-House Natural Products Inc., New Brunswick, Canada, offers a line of mineral-based paints and natural oil finishes.
• Ecos Organic Paints, Great Britain, has developed a full line of well-received paint products which have won environmental awards dating back to 1990.
• Weather-Bos, USA, supplies an effective line of exterior wood finishes.

Electronic links to a number of other environmentally friendly paint sources can be found in the EcoBusinessLinks environmental directory.

Other products are part of the painting operation as well:

Paint brushes Kwick Clean and Green Ltd., a Canadian company, developed and markets a paint brush with brush heads that are easier to clean and replaceable when worn.

Solvents Naturally sourced, citrus-based solvents have been on the market for some time and are available from many companies, including Eco-House listed above. DuPont has developed a solvent system based on dibasic esters, which is used in a wide range of applications.

Paint strippers A new generation of water soluble, noncaustic, nontoxic paint strippers based on an organic solvent, N Methylpyrrolidone, is now on the market with trade names like Citristrip, Peel Away, and Ameristrip. More details at on the Eartheasy website.

(Source: WasteWatch, June 2003)

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