Please keep me safe from lead
Lead was widely used to improve the performance of paint. It was used as a pigment, and also was known to improve the durability and appearance of painted surfaces. It is still used around the world for the same reasons.
The performance benefits of lead pale by comparison to the harmful effects it has on humans.
Growing children under the age of six can experience the most severe of side effects. Lead can hinder growth and development and is harmful to the nervous system and every organ of the body. While it is documented to be harmful to young children, adults can experience effects like reproductive problems.
Eating paint chips is not the only way it can hurt children. Dust from old paint during repainting and other renovations, if ingested can also be harmful.
Paint manufacturers for years now have improved paint performance without using lead.
While the debate south of the border is mostly based on the regulatory part of the lead issue, talk goes further than compliance and what someone can get away with.
Responsible Painting Contractors need to look at the well being of their customers and their own safety during renovations and painting of older homes.
The Paul, a remodeler in Minnesota, brings up some real points in an article in the Construction Remodel Forum.
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As usual, interesting discussion has been taking place in Painttalk.com about green painting and green paints. The thread started with an opinion that marketing green products is sometimes influenced by unrealistic expectations of how they should perform. Are the new paints performing like the paints of yesterday? What about their cost? Are professional painters stepping out of their comfort zone by using new green paints? Professional painters rely on products that have performed perform well in the past. There is scepticism about the new “green paints”and mostly deserved.
On the question of what is green, the question was asked about having a unified standard of what is green.
The following answer from the Original poster (from http://www.degreeofgreen.com/) addresses that question.
“The problem with a unified standard is that there is no unified definition of what “green” means. The three most-used independent certifiers, Greenguard, Greenseal and SCS, all have their own set of criteria. Plus, none of them address toxicity of ingredients that make up less than 1% of the volume. For folks with allergies, asthma and chem sensitivity, this wont help them. All in all, the independent third party certifiers are simply providing a rubber stamp for using the approved paints on a LEED project. In a home, who cares about LEED? In my years of being in this business, never has any home owner ever asked me “does this paint meet GS-11?” They don’t care about that. They ask questions like “will this paint be safe for my autistic child?” or “can I use this even though I’m pregnant?” Currently there is NO standard that addresses these questions. Therefore, you have to rely on what the mfg’s say and the track record their products have.”
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It took a while, but almost every paint manufacturer has some low or zero VOC paint. The problem starts as soon as universal colourants are added, the low VOC content of the paint becomes history.
New Benjamin Moore paint lines are now using their new waterbourne colourant system. When you add colour, even a lot of colour, in their low or zero VOC paint, the VOC level of the paint doesn’t change much. The Natura paint from Benjamin Moore has other reasons to be considered very eco-friendly, read our interview with a Benjamin Moore representative.
How does Natura perform? Our Oshawa Painters put the paint to the test. The customer was very environmentally aware and using Natura to paint the entire house made sense. We ended up using both Mat and Eggshell Natura and the feedback received from the painters was very positive. The paint was easy to work with and hiding was excellent, even with the bright red colour shown in the picture.
The painters and the customers were happy that there was hardly any smell of paint, even with the red colours. That is a first for us with any manufacturer’s paint we used. The conclusion is that Natura works as promised and will become our residential paint of choice.
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Keeping paint out of our lakes
When you have finished a project, it is very rare that you would have used all of the paint you purchased for the job. It is always important to determine what to do with your leftover paint. Painting with dangerous or toxic paints is sometimes unavoidable, however there are safe and environmentally friendly ways of disposing of this excess paint.
One option is to put that excess paint to good use by someone who needs it. You could donate the leftover paint to non-profit agencies, community groups, churches, or to a friend who wants to paint. Many people opt to keep their leftover paint for touchups or future painting projects. In this case, be sure to read the storage instructions on the can.
If you want to dispose of the paint, there are environmentally friendly options. There are different methods of paint disposal for oil-based and latex paints:
- Oil based paints and solvents are hazardous waste. Do NOT throw the paint/can into the garbage or down the sink. Your municipality should have a special hazardous waste collection program for this type of hazardous material. There are often drop off sites where you can go to bring your excess paint. Refer to your local municipality for specific rules and regulations.
- Water based paint should not be poured down the sink or taken to the landfill either. One method of disposing of the extra paint is to fill a paper bag or box with a material such as sand or saw dust and pour the excess paint over this material. The material should absorb the excess paint. Allow the mixture to dry in a well-ventilated area away from direct heat, children and pets. Once the mixture has dried, it can be disposed of in the garbage.
To specifically dispose of the paint cans, allow the paint residue in the can to dry completely by removing the lid. Once the reside is dry it can be peeled out of the can and thrown in the garbage. The can may then be recycled. Be sure to leave the label on so that it is visible during recycling collection.
Joanne
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One of our jobs recently brought us to the Queen and John area where we were working on a building undergoing some renovations. This commercial painting job had us painting the floors and stairway of a multi-level office building with floor paint. It really brightened the entrance to the building and gave it a fresh new look! We also painted one of the levels of the office building which was being renovated.
Some spray painting was done with dry-fall latex paint on the ceilings and eco-friendly epoxy was used in one area on the floor.
Within one of the rooms was an interesting light fixture that definitely catches the eye! There were two of these fixtures within one of the rooms. They were comprised of various types of recycled bulbs from coloured and white bulbs to compact fluorescent and incandescent to small and large bulbs. Eco-conscious readers can take comfort in knowing that all of these bulbs do not light up with a flick of a switch! The light source for each came from only two bulbs within the design. An excellent source of light for this trendy, newly renovated new building!
Joanne
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Adding to the discussion of the environmental policies of Ecopainting Inc, the following are some of the current policies of our Toronto Painting Company
Office - Administration
- Print only the proposals and related documents needed for jobs in progress. “Pending”,
”open” or “not awarded” proposals and estimates will remain digital files.
- We only receive computer faxing. As a result we have eliminated all junk faxes. We just print what is needed or worth printing.
- E-mail communication is not printed unless a hard copy is needed.
- E-mail communication is preferred and promoted with all our vendors, clients and employees.
- Computers and electronic equipment will be turned off when not being used.
- Company documents and manuals will remain digital until a hard copy is needed.
Marketing
- There will be no flyers, door hangers, postcards, printed newsletters, or any other mass distributed junk mail used by our company
- Our lawn signs will be re-usable and only used on the jobsites of the projects we are working on. They will be picked-up at the end of the project to be used at the next project.
- Internet and website marketing will be our main source of new business.
- Referral and repeat business will remain an important source of work.
- Networking with like-minded green businesses and individuals will be pursued inside and outside of the renovation or construction field.
Sales
- Glossy sales brochures, fancy literature and any “leave behind” tool will not be used. Instead the human interaction will be emphasized. We are there to help.
- Necessary paperwork, such as take-off sheets, insurance documentation etc, will be used wisely.
- Sales personnel will suggest and explain the benefits of using eco friendly coatings.
- Sometimes the most eco-friendly paint job is no paint job at all. If certain areas or rooms are in good condition the question to be asked is: “does it really need painting?” For example, doors and trim, ceilings and even closets don’t have to be done with every paint job.
- The use of dark and bright colours should not be encouraged to the customer as they contain more VOC and possibly require multiple coats of paint. Paints with waterbourne colourants suggested.
- Detailed proposals and quotes should never be mailed or dropped-off. They should be e-mailed as pdf documents.
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By Rachel
Some ideas:
For the Administration:
-Recycle paint cans at designated sites. (www.toronto.ca/recycle)
-Reward those who carpool, take TTC etc.
-Calculate your emissions created in different aspects of the business (one site to help calculate this is: http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/eco-survey/)
and then offset them by donating to vendors selling carbon offsets:
www.less.ca
www.puretrust.org.uk/
www.myclimate.org/en
https://climatefriendly.com/
or, by donating to vendors providing renewable energy options:
www.pollutionprobe.org/whatwedo/greenpower/consumerguide/index.htm
www.enmax.com/
www.b-e-f.org/index.php
-Provide or insist on high quality brushes and rollers to be reused many times, or:
-When possible, insist on buying locally made paints and tools, or alternately, tools that have been
made from recycled materials (rollers and trays are available that are made from recycled cardboard
and other materials: BioTray, Bio Pulp Works, Whizz Green Rollers.)
Also available are tarps that are high-functioning, but then completely biodegradable (Eco Drop Tarp).
Similarly, the Envirobrush sounds like a cool idea, the bristles are disposable, and lock onto a reusable and recyclable plastic handle.
-Set up volunteer opportunities, such as tree planting for a day, where instead of painting, workers are involved in helping the environment.
-Attempt when at all possible to send workers to locations closest to them, to cut down on travel.
-Donate unused or extra paints and tools to organizations such as Freecycle. (www.freecycle.org)
- Potentially, institute four-day workweeks, but with longer days so there is less travel time per week.
- Acknowledge Earth Day, other environmental events.
What Workers can be doing:
The Obvious, boring things:
-Bring a lunch packed from home, in reusable containers.
-Maintain an organized workspace, so you know what you have and don’t accidentally use more. ie, plastic.
-Use cloth drop cloths as often as possible, and reuse plastic for more than one function.
Where to go from here:
Observe the average workday over a few days, and assess where the painters are coming from, both physically and in mindset. Little things like what they are wearing, and the daily routine should be investigated in order to make small changes that will ultimately impact the ecological footprint we as painters have on the environment. Also, find out from the other painters exactly what they envision and are feel that they are able to do from an ecological standpoint.
Notes:
Look on Toronto website for places to donate, recycling depots, etc.
Informative Read: World Changing: A User’s Guide for the 21sr Century.
Rachel is the first painter responsible for environmental issues (in need of better job title here) for Ecopainting Inc.
This is a position to be rotated amongst all painters.
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A Painting contractors problem with time keeping
Paint Contractors use paint and they should mind their “chemicals”, it goes without saying.
For a company to be environmentally responsible, all business activities have to be seriously examined and if necessary changed. Ecopainting Inc, well known Toronto Painters, had a major problem in their hands, more like a bottleneck. Time keeping of most contracting companies is traditionally done with time sheets. They are distributed every pay period and employees are to complete them accurately with their daily activities.
At the end of the pay period they are sent to the office, where they are checked against the labour budget and they are also used for payroll. The Toronto Painting Contractor had two major problems with this process and its implementation.
- Problem one was the accuracy of this archaic record keeping. Painters would routinely forget to record their times and as a result do it at the end of the pay period from memory. Also job site addresses would be incorrect and yes sometimes time-sheets would be lost, washed with the laundry, torn, etc. Major babysitting headaches became the norm.
- Another problem was the paperwork created. Ecopainting is an eco-friendly painting contractor and creating this much paper work was unacceptable.
Enter T-Sheets. T-Sheets is an online time and labour management service that promises to save time and money with an effective time tracking system and of course without all the paper being wasted. Too good to be true?
After investigating and trying the system, the decision was made to embrace technology and go all out with it. Job managers were provided with iphones and messy paper recording of time cards are now a thing of the past. In addition to that, T-Sheets intergrates with the Accounting and Payroll system of Ecopainting.
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