I watched the emulsion residue stained water disappearing down the sink at an alarming rate, and it just kept coming. Unfortunately, running water is the only way to clear good quality brushes properly. I could envision our water meter spinning as the minutes passed, and the water treatment needed to remove this waste will add to the unseen portion of our carbon account.
One of my next jobs is painting the woodwork, and that means oil based paints; I’ve tried the water based alternative, and both finish and durability were very poor.
These brushes need solvents to clean them, and the resulting waste is very hard to dispose of properly. It should never go down the drain, so I tried contacting the Council, and after some discussion, I now bottle the liquid waste up, label it, and leave it near the oil recycling tank at the local recycle centre. After that…
I started wondering whether it would cause less impact to buy new brushes each time, but they’d still need manufacturing, transport, and disposal: the waste would still be there.
I wonder if I can convince Clare that we should stop decorating on environmental grounds? Probably not, so may be I should start to look for alternatives.