The government of Alberta’s paint stewardship program, Too Good to Waste, takes effect today across the province. The program was announced last October and is designed to reduce the amount of materials heading into landfills.

Dean Brawn with Calibre Environmental of Calgary, whose company is the only latex paint recycler in western Canada, was in Brooks last week to discuss the merits of the program at the Newell Recycling Association’s AGM.

“We take anything and everything, providing it is latex,” he said.

He said while recycled oil paints get turned into alternative fuels, latex paint is combined to make new colours.

“The paint is mixed prior to filtering through a three-stage filter process that brings the paint to an industry standard.” His company, Eco-Coat, has the City of Calgary’s latex paint recycling contract.

“On April 1, when you purchase a can of paint, the extra cost is the Alberta Paint Stewardship program kicking off,” he said.

The province has put an environmental fee into place, ranging from 10 cents to $1, depending on the size of the container, similar to fees imposed in B.C. and Saskatchewan. The fee will be used to fund such things as the cost of recycling the paint, operating the program and educating consumers.

“The hope is to collect about $3 million in fees to pay for the cost,” said Brawn.

The primary goal of the waste strategy is to reduce waste disposal at landfills to 500 kilograms (kg) per capita by the year 2010.

Currently, more than 800 kg per capita of waste are disposed of in landfills. Latex architectural coatings, oil and solvent-based architectural coatings as well as all aerosol paints and empty paint containers are included in the program.