Today's Review: What To Do With Leftover Paint

I paid a visit to the library today, and while it's certainly full of countless volumes of great literature and knowledge, it also has a small selection of leaflets, and contained within those leaflets is this eye catching little number. It's a leaflet dedicated entirely to the disposal of leftover paint. I may have been living under a rock, but I wasn't aware that leftover paint was a big enough issue to deserve increased public awareness. I guess I was wrong. 

Inside is a great variety of methods on how to get rid of the remnants of that darned annoying paint you bought. Why don't they sell just enough paint to cover my specific sized room? I don't know, but the recycling centre sure don't want to take my paint cans with liquid left inside, we have to dispose of it somehow. I like how the first option is to offer the leftover paint to friends and relatives. Just in case they want to paint a fraction of their room a specific colour. I suppose that they may have something small that they'd like to paint, so this could be a perfectly viable option. Donation is also a very nice alternative, if you're not going to use that paint, then someone else should. 

As for the other options, they're about as interesting as watching paint dry, because that's exactly what they entail. I guess they were running out of things to write on this side of the leaflet, as there are no less than five methods you can use to make your paint dry. They range from leaving the open can lying around, to shovelling dirt and newspaper inside, to buying some premium specialist paint hardener from B&Q. It's nice they cater to a wide range of people, from those who like to frivolously throw money away on unnecessary things to those who can't even afford newspaper and have to wait around for however many weeks it takes paint to dry on its own. So yes, I think the disposal of paint is quite nicely covered in this section. But there may be some out there who are clinging onto barbaric paint disposal methods, and the next page will put all those to rest.

Don't pour paint down the toilet. People do that? Apparently they do when they're not busy pouring it into rivers. Does this really need to be said? If it does then I guess this is a worse problem than I thought. They even have to tell you not to bury paint cans in your garden. I can imagine someone digging up shallow graves in the middle of the night, crying and ashamed at the amount of paint they've wasted, hoping no one will find out what they've done. Also, apparently it's fine to put dried paint in the bin, but not liquid paint. At first I thought it was nitpicking, but I guess that makes sense. Perhaps some unsuspecting bin men have been sprayed with Soft Peach or Sea Blue while going about their daily duties.

So there you have it, if you were racking your brains about what to do with your last few drops of paint, worry no more, this leaflet has got you covered. I was skeptical when I saw it, but really it accomplishes what it set out to do, I'm certainly more informed on the subject. You can even complete a survey on the subject online, with a chance to win a shed. An entire shed! You know what you could put in there? That's right, leftover paint cans.

My rating: 5/5