How green is Resene?
Painting the town green Imagine if you can using a vermilion paint coloured by pigments made from a mercury compound to paint your bathroom, or perhaps choosing a green paint containing arsenic to finish the fence painting. Both scenarios are ridiculous to contemplate today, yet were commonplace less than a century ago. Paint manufacturing has certainly come a long way since then, with toxic substances such as mercury, arsenic and more recently, lead, no longer acceptable ingredients in the paint chemist's repertoire. These restrictions are just the tip of the iceberg. Recent attention has focused on the effect of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions on our environment. It is estimated by the Paint Quality Institute that 10% of the ozone depleting substances in the urban United States are a direct result of VOC emissions from surface coatings, including mainly standard household paints. Paints are manufactured using a wide range of organic and inorganic materials. They can contain components that can impact adversely on the environment at different stages of the product s life cycle releasing solvents and toxic substances during production, application, the service life of the coating and disposal. In response to growing concerns over VOC emissions, the Environmental Choice programme focuses on the need to reduce these emissions. Solventborne paints release significantly more VOCs per litre than waterborne paints, spurring Resene chemists to develop waterborne replacements for solventborne products. Trim, joinery and wet areas were traditionally no-go areas for waterborne paints due to a tendency to soften under prolonged exposure to moisture and poor block resistance (the ability of a paint to not stick to itself when two painted surfaces come into contact). Resene's introduction of waterborne enamels in 1996 - Resene Enamacryl and Resene Lustacryl - was a breakthrough offering a viable alternative to solventborne products. And customers clearly agreed - less than five years later, Resene Enamacryl and Resene Lustacryl easily outsold their solventborne equivalents. The waterborne enamel range has now been extended to include Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen and Resene SpaceCote Flat for interior use on broadwall, wet areas and trim and joinery.
In 1996, just 8% of the decorative paint sold by Resene was solventborne compared to 20% for other major paint companies, while the average per litre VOC levels of Resene decorative paint sales have dropped by over 90% in the last two decades, clearly demonstrating Resene s commitment to proactively develop and launch environmentally preferable waterborne technologies to the market. Environmental Choice Environmental Choice is a programme endorsed by the Ministry for the Environment. It is aimed at improving the quality of the environment by minimising the adverse environmental impacts generated by the production, distribution, use and disposal of products. Joining the Environmental Choice programme also gave Resene the impetus to solve a common headache for customers caused by strong smelling paint. The solution came in two parts: Resene chemists removed virtually all odorous material from Resene Zylone Sheen, Resene Zylone 20 and Resene Ceiling Paint, giving users high quality products without strong smelling solvent odours. The end result? Users could paint interior areas and put the area back into service almost immediately, rather than waiting for days for the strong smelling odours to disappear. The incidence of headaches, asthma, nausea, respiratory complaints and allergic reactions can also be easily reduced by simply choosing to use a low odour paint. While Resene paint odour levels are not high, the patented low odour technology in Resene Zylone Sheen, Resene Zylone 20 and Resene Ceiling Paint provides more pleasant working and living conditions for those sensitive to paint odours during painting.
View Resene Environmental Choice paint range. Improved working environments Just as our customers call Australasia home, so do we. Therefore it
is central to our way of operating that we continuously strive to reduce
the adverse effects of paint on the environment. Choose to specify and
use Environmental Choice products wherever you can and help Resene keep
the environment green. Look for the EC logo on our product data sheets
and paint containers - it is confirmation that the product meets the
requirements of the Environmental Choice programme. All Resene products are manufactured under a quality system certified as complying with ISO 9001. Most Resene Environmental Choice products are approved by the Australian Paint Approvals Scheme (APAS). Paint recovery
Responsible recovery progressed rapidly following the 2004 trial, with a permanent Resene PaintWise service being launched in Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty on 1 September 2005 and in the South Island on 1 August 2006. Residents in those areas can bring in unwanted paint and paint packaging, any brand, to selected Resene ColorShops. A PaintWise mobile truck service visits the stores, processing the materials received before returning to its depot. Good quality Resene paint is provided free to community groups, other waterborne paint is consolidated and provided to uses such as graffiti obliteration work, metal packaging is recycled and solventborne paint is sent to solvent recovery. The programme doesnít stop there though. The Resene PaintWise service is proactively being expanded to make paint and paint packaging recovery a reality for more and more paint users. More than just green product Resene critically evaluates key raw materials and the manner they are sourced and is prepared to pay a premium for ingredients that have demonstrably least impact on the environment, such as titanium dioxide purchases that could be sourced from developing countries with more wasteful processing techniques, but instead are purchased more expensively from manufacturers who use least waste methods. Resene wash solvents are recycled to avoid waste while waterborne factory wash water is reused as a priority and what cannot be reabsorbed into the manufacturing process is treated in a specialised plant. Sustainability is more than just green products and sustainable product performance, it is also focused on effectively and efficiently conducting business while minimising negative impacts on the environment. Resene continually works to improve all site operations from providing secure bunding to avoid accidental spills in the main factory site to having individual spill kits available in Resene ColorShops to ensure any accidental spills are quickly contained. Resene innovations, such as waterborne enamels, highly durable tinting systems and more recently cool colour technology, all improve the durability and performance of the paint system. Cool Colour technology formulated into exterior paints enables them to reflect heat that would normally be absorbed, reducing coating and substrate stress improving the longevity of each, while minimising the air conditioning costs required to keep the building at a constant comfortable temperature during the hot summer months. |
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Focused
research and development has led to low odour Resene Zylone Sheen being
launched in a VOC free version, Resene Zylone Sheen VOC Free, providing
all the benefits of the popular Resene Zylone Sheen with no added VOCs.
The
second part of the solution was to introduce waterborne products that
could be used in place of solventborne products, such as Resene Enamacryl
and Resene Lustacryl. With the launch of these products, customers reaped
the benefits of easy water washup, lower odour and a fraction of the
VOCs of the solventborne products they had traditionally been forced
to use for wet areas, trim and joinery.
Following
nearly five years of development, Resene PaintWise, the first comprehensive
local product stewardship program for home decorators, was launched
in 2004 by Resene to encourage paint users to minimise the effects of
their decorating on the environment. The first year of Resene PaintWise
included an unwanted paint and paint packaging recovery trial in Auckland
to help homeowners recycle and dispose of their unwanted paint and paint
packaging. Thousands and thousands of cans were returned to the Resene
PaintWise service, some empty, many partially full of paint. Waterborne
paint was donated to community groups, metal cans were recycled and
solventborne paint sent to solvent recovery to allow the solvents to
be reused in other industries.
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