Senate committee reviews paint-program language, industry asks to limit covered products to architectural paint

The Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee on May 2 reviewed draft changes to a proposed paint stewardship program that would exclude non-architectural paints from the program's definition of "covered household products" and rely on post-consumer architectural paint for collection-site modeling.

Legislative staff summarized amendments that the paint industry requested to clarify the program's scope: the draft would explicitly exclude OEM and industrial coating products and limit covered items to architectural paints used in interior and exterior building applications. The committee discussed reverting the collection-site modeling to focus on post-consumer architectural paint rather than a broader set of new paint products.

An industry representative told the committee that not all products in the expanded draft would be collected through retail take-back and that some items—such as paint thinners—would require special handling or separate collection arrangements. Committee members said they expect the industry to provide geographic modeling that identifies the number and distribution of collection sites if the program scope expands beyond architectural paint.

Committee members and staff agreed to leave language that limits the model to post-consumer architectural paint in place for now and to confirm details with the paint industry and state collection managers before making further substantive changes. No formal vote was taken during the session.