Paint waste ends in a master stroke

TALK about painting yourself into a tight spot.

Australian car makers use almost 10 million litres of paint a year on plastic car parts, but only 30-40 per cent of it actually makes it on to the finished cars. The rest is wasted — a colossal loss that costs manufacturers about $100 million a year, according to data from the Australian paint industry.

It is also an environmental disaster. Each year, an average 2.5 million litres of slurry-like paint by-product goes to landfill, while solvents used for spray painting evaporate into the air, distributing volatile organic compounds and hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.

The problem stems from plastic's lack of conductivity, so that airborne paint particles are not drawn to the plastic surface.
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