hey habitat

From Habitat magazine - issue 06

From you...

From Kevin:  Recently, I visited a Resene ColorShop and was asked to pay a PaintWise levy. What is this and what is it used for?

A. The PaintWise levy is collected on behalf of the nonprofit Resene Foundation. This money, together with contributions from Resene, is used to run a paint and paint packaging recovery programme. Good-quality recovered waterborne paint goes free of charge to community groups, metal cans are recycled, and solventborne paint goes to solvent recovery to retrieve the solvents and reuse them in other industries. Click for more information on Resene PaintWise.

From Karen:  We are planning to redecorate our five year- old’s bedroom and want to do more than just paint the walls a different colour. Friends have mentioned blackboard paints and magnetic paints – how do they work and would they be suitable?

A. Resene Magnetic Magic is a basecoat that contains iron oxides. Simply paint two coats onto a prepared surface, then overcoat with a Resene topcoat in the colour of your choice. If you want, you can overcoat it with Resene Blackboard Paint for a magnetic blackboard that you can draw on with chalk and stick magnets on. The best magnets to use are rare earth magnets. It’s a great way to put posters up without any annoying pin marks in the walls!

From Ivan:  I am looking for some information about whitewashing. What paint do you use and how do you apply it? I get all the Resene books and saw your article in Habitat. We are trying to get the same look for our project.

A. We recommend Resene Waterborne Colorwood Rock Salt to blond timber, with a polyurethane overcoat such as Resene Qristal Clear or Resene Aquaclear. If a non yellowing system is required, then use Resene Uracryl Clear over the Resene Rock Salt. Before we had Resene Waterborne Colorwood Rock Salt, some people would use thinned out Resene Enamel Undercoat as a wiping stain, to give that blonding effect. If the surface has been previously painted, you could use Resene Paint Effects Medium, tinted white, to get the look.

From Sally:  We are currently trying to select some colours for our home and are finding that sometimes when we use testpots the colour looks very different to the wet paint in the testpot.

A. Paint colours do change, depending on whether the paint is wet or dry. Some subtleties in the colour may not be obvious in the wet paint. This is why we always recommend painting the colour onto a large piece of card or the area being painted. Different lighting, adjacent colours and other surfaces in the room can all affect the way a colour appears. When viewing colours on a colour chart, make sure you use a grey isolator – free from Resene ColorShops – to cover up nearby colours. This will allow you to focus just on the shade you are considering without being distracted by its neighbours. Colours also look very different when they are on a small swatch, compared to when they’re painted on a full wall. They tend to look much stronger en masse, so if in doubt, it sometimes pays to select a lighter strength colour.

From Ray:  When I received the last issue of Habitat and opened the wrapper, I was met with very strong petrochemical odours. They presumably result from the type of ink used. My understanding is that vegetable based inks and a wide range of CFC-free/recycled papers are available at little – if any – cost premium and are appropriate for this type of publication. I would therefore encourage the company to consider its inks and papers prior to the publication of the next edition.

A. The smell you refer to is the solvent from the sheet fed cover ink, not from the paper, which has little – if any – smell. The paper we use is probably the most environmentally friendly A2 grade available. The stock is Elementally Chlorine Free (ECF). This does not mean it’s entirely chlorine free, but the chlorine is dramatically reduced, and the bleaching is essentially achieved using hydrogen peroxide. In the past, chlorine was used as the sole bleaching agent, producing dioxin as a by-product. Very few paper manufacturers produce A2 grade recycled paper, as it is expensive and the quality is not nearly as good as paper from virgin pulp – paper can only be recycled down in grade, not up. And for the name “recycled” to have any credibility, it should indicate the use of post-consumer waste. All mills producing so called recycled A2 grades primarily use waste pulp from the paper manufacturing process, which is not therefore actually recycled.

Also, nasty chemicals have to be used in the production of recycled paper to remove the ink. Then, the sludge has to be disposed of by dumping or incineration. Newsprint is relatively easy to recycle, as there is not as much ink to remove, but it can only be re-used as packing materials and low-grade cardboard etc.

Our A2 paper comes from manufacturers that use pulp from sustainably managed forests and have closed loop manufacturing systems. This means water and byproducts are recycled up to six or seven times before being treated for disposal.

Our printer uses afterburners and ovens on its web presses to burn off the solvents from the ink, producing 99% air and water vapour. There are therefore no chemicals involved and should be minimal smell from the web printed sections.

The inks used contain no toxic heavy metals or raw materials that could lead to the formation of toxic substances such as dioxins. They mainly constitute unproblematic hydrocarbon compounds such as mineral and natural oils and resins. Their chlorine content averages a few tenths of a percent, which is about the same as many natural products and foodstuffs. Therefore, it is no surprise that printed papers can be composted without any negative effects on the garden.

Want to get your own free copy of future issues of habitat magazine?

Printed copies of habitat highlights are available from late March 2024 at Resene ColorShops and resellers, while stocks last. You can view back issues of habitat magazine online.

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