MD’s Paint Stewardship Program Launch!

Maryland Paint Stewardship Program Launches April 1, 2026!

Find a free paint drop off site near you: PaintCare.org/MD

Sponsored by Delegate Boyce @reginatboyce and Senator Brooks @senatorbenbrooks and passed into law in 2024, this program makes it easier for Marylanders to recycle or safely dispose of their leftover paint!

As of April 1st, residents can recycle leftover paint, stain, and varnish at convenient drop-off sites around the state, including participating local paint retailers.

The program is operated by a nonprofit organization, PaintCare, created by architectural paint manufacturers with oversight by Maryland Department of the Environment. It will manage used paint collection and recycling in partnership with local stores and local governments. A fee on new paint sales, from 50 cents to $2.25 a container over a certain size, will fund the program.

Twelve states have a paint stewardship program to recycle paint and help unburden local governments of the cost of safely managing used paint. We're happy to see this new product stewardship program launch to benefit Marylanders today!

This program is an example of product stewardship. Product stewardship involves minimizing the environmental, health, safety, and social impacts of a product and its packaging throughout and after the product’s useful life. This can help shift cost burdens for managing disposal of a product and its packaging from local governments and taxpayers to producers and/or consumers of the product. In the case of paint, a nonprofit producer stewardship organization like PaintCare can work with collection points across the state to achieve economies of scale that make it feasible and efficient to recycle or reuse or otherwise keep the paint at its highest and best use for as long as possible before safe disposal. This model also minimizes burden and cost to the state government (Maryland Department of the Environment) to implement the program, and ensures that Maryland’s Paint Stewardship Program can employ the best practices and lessons learned in other states with paint stewardship programs (approximately 12 states as of March 2026).

Visit PaintCare.org/MD to learn more or find a local participating drop off site near you.

#paintstewardship #productstewardship
#zerowaste #recycling #paintcare