Dear Neighbors, Thank you for all the great responses! There were quite a few requests to post what I found out, so below are a few of them. Thanks again, Rebecca: Try seeing if the local high school drama club wants it for painting sets. If not, fill the cans with kitty litter and let it dry out. Then, you can put it in the trash. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ If it is latex paint just open up the cans and let them dry out completely. Then throw them away in the regular garbage pick up. Oil paint is a different story. Go to this website and it will tell you. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Are they lead-based or regular latex? If they're regular paint, just open them up, let them dry out, and dump them in the trash. If they're lead-based, you need to find a hazardous waste site. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Two suggestions: One from my painter and one from Sherwin Williams. Try mixing kitty litter in with the paint to promote the paint drying and hardening in the can. Could take awhile but this is what my painter suggested. Sherwin Williams suggested taking large amounts of cardboard and laying it out in your backyard and dripping the paint across the cardboard thinly on a sunny day allowing it to dry. This is of course if you have the space. Either way, once the paint is in its dry state the garbage collection folks should take it. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ You could donate them to Construction Junction (http://www.constructionjunction.org/) or you can open them and let the paint dry out, then you can put them out with the trash, or you can fill them with Kitty Litter (helps the paint to dry) and then put them out with the trash. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I would contact Construction Junction to get their recommendations. They used to collect old paint for sale but I think they stopped. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ We were told if you open the cans and let them dry out (add kitty litter if needed) then you can throw them out for the regular trash. That’s what we did when we got our house. Just open them all up outside on a nice day & they will dry quickly. Also, if some were fairly full, we dumped it out in a trashbag full of kitty litter and then threw that all away. Otherwise, there is a city program that will take them, but they only do it every few months. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ As I understand it latex paint is not considered hazardous and can just be emptied or thrown out. Here is a link, scroll down to paint: http://www.goinggreenpittsburgh.org/recycling-resources.php ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Martha Stewart has suggested using kitty litter to soak up all the paint so that it can be thrown out. I can't find that particular page, but I found similar info here: http://charlesandhudson.com/paint/tips/properly-disposal-of-extra-paint-pain... ++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1. Wait for a hazardous waste collection event (happens once or twice per year, usually in North Park). You can bring old cans of paint -- both oil and latex based -- and drop them off there for a fee. The next event will be sometime in the Spring. 2. Get a few large bags of cheap cat litter (I've used Valu TIme from Giant Eagle). NOTE: this works only for latex based paint. Pour cat litter into the old paint and stir well. In my experience, it works best if the can is no more than 1/3 full. The cat litter will dry out the paint, and you can then dump the dried-out paint into a garbage bag. You may need to apply cat litter a few times before all paint has dried out. I found that using a crowbar to stir in cat litter, and also get out the hardened paint, worked well. Start with your least-full cans and get them cleaned out. Once you have some empty cans, it is easier to attack the fuller cans by redistributing the paint into the empty cans so that you never have to put cat litter into a can that is more than 1/3 full. On a good week, I cleaned out 3-4 cans this way, so 20 cans (assuming they are all latex based paint) would take me a month or two. -----Original Message----- From: soetnos55 <soetnos55@aol.com> To: neighborhood <neighborhood@highlandparkpa.com> Sent: Sun, Nov 13, 2011 8:12 pm Subject: [Highland Park] How to dispose of old cans of paint? Dear neighbors, When my husband and I purchased our home we inherited about 20 cans of old paint left behind from previous owners. We would like to get this out of our basement. Any suggestions on how and in particular where we can dispose of this? Thanks! Rebecca -- EDISTRIBUTE ONLY WITH PERMISSION OF AUTHOR http://lists.highlandparkpa.com/mailman/listinfo/neighborhood>