How Dulux owner AkzoNobel is turning to design to bring recycled paint to the mainstream
Dulux owner AkzoNobel has collaborated with design and innovation company Seymourpowell to create new technology that allows paint to be recycled more cost-effectively and on a large scale.
Seymourpowell was tasked with creating the machinery and technology to overcome the technical and commercial challenges of scaling up a recycling process created by paint chemist Keith Harrison and bringing it to the mainstream.
Currently 400m litres of paint is sold in the UK each year but 13 per cent of it goes unused; amounting to 55 million litres in total. Seymourpowell's new technology mechanizes the process of decanting unused paint from tins, helping save resources and reduce landfill.
The agency began by experimenting with different ways to extract the unused paint from tins and tried using high-pressure air jets, vibrations and crushing and squeezing the tin before discovering a powerful industrial vacuum cleaner that could suck the paint out of the tin quickly and efficiently.
The concept was then trialed with waste management company Veolia, with resulted in paint being recycled four times faster and at one-seventh of the cost of the previous methods. The technology also leaves tins clean enough to be recycled straight away, is cost-effective to scale up and is easy and green to clean.
David Cornish, AkzoNobel resource efficiency manager commented: “Redesigning the way paint gets recycled is fraught with challenges, but Seymourpowell managed to combine creativity with technical ingenuity to create a really effective new solution. This is certainly helping turn our circular economy strategy into a reality”.
Seymourpowell also worked with eco paint brand Newlife Paints on the project.