Pouring Paint down a toilet

  • Thread starter Thread starter stove
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

stove

Guest
Hi,
I work in construction and I have wondered about something recently.
When cleaning paint brushes, rollers, buckets and equipment, we flush the waste (with paint in it) down the toilet or a sink… I have recently found out this is illegal (i think). Is doing this a mortal sin?
 
stove said:
Hi,
I work in construction and I have wondered about something recently.
When cleaning paint brushes, rollers, buckets and equipment, we flush the waste (with paint in it) down the toilet or a sink… I have recently found out this is illegal (i think). Is doing this a mortal sin?
Click to expand...
I work in construction and I often wondered if painters ever realize what happens when one flushes a toilet. I see this as common practice and miss the common sense. Whether or not this is a mortal sin is best discussed with your confessor but it definitely is a hazard to the enviornment and at least should be a venial sin for damaging God’s creation. I’m sure building management would also appreciate you not clogging their toilets with hazardous waste…teachccd :confused:
 
teachccd said:
I work in construction and I often wondered if painters ever realize what happens when one flushes a toilet. I see this as common practice and miss the common sense. Whether or not this is a mortal sin is best discussed with your confessor but it definitely is a hazard to the enviornment and at least should be a venial sin for damaging God’s creation. I’m sure building management would also appreciate you not clogging their toilets with hazardous waste…teachccd :confused:
Click to expand...
I don’t throw paint down the toilet but I do clean brushes in the sink. How else are you supposed to clean the paint off brushes?
 
Joannm said:
I don’t throw paint down the toilet but I do clean brushes in the sink. How else are you supposed to clean the paint off brushes?
Click to expand...
Ya, I dont know but at this doityourself site it says to clean your stuff in the sink too. But technically, it is illegal I think. But my job requires me to do it. I can refuse to clean up but then even if I dont get fired, someone else is just going to do the same thing anyway.
 
Before you had knowledge it was not sin. Now you have knowledge so it could be either sin or not depending on whether the action is morally neutral or is believed to be morally neutral. So you have 1) action causes harm, you know that so action = sin; 2) action causes harm, you think it does not cause harm so action is not sin 3)action causes no harm, you know that so action is not sin; and 4) action causes no harm, you think it creates harm action is not sin.
 
I am not talking about pouring paint directly down the toilet. I am actually talking about water that has paint mixed in as a result of cleaning brushes, rollers, sprayers, and paint buckets. Does this make a difference?
 
Yes, I think it does make a big difference whether you mean pouring a can a paint into the toilet or or pouring the water that has paint in it because you’ve just cleaned your brushes.

Frankly, I have never heard of this before. I know that where I live, you can’t put a can of paint in the garbage. You have to take it to a hazardous waste place. It is okay to put in the garbage if it has dried up in the can.

If I’m painting with water base paint, of course, when I’m cleaning the brush, some paint mixed with water will go down the sink. I have never heard that this is illegal where I live. Will someone please explain how you’re supposed to clean a brush if you can’t pour the water down the sink?

I think that a person who thought this was some kind of terrible sin would be being pretty scrupulous. Not everything that is technically illegal is a sin.

I don’t see what difference it makes whether you pour it down the sink or flush it down the toilet. Doesn’t it all go to the same sewer?
 
Since you have doubts, then it’s not a mortal sin, just try to find out about the law though and confess it anyways, at least your conscience is affecting you and that’s a good thing 😃
 
What you need to realize is that wastewater treatment plants do not remove chemicals from the water, only the biologicals. So if you are flushing solvents or pouring them down the drain they are not being removed. Acceptable toxic chemical levels are measured parts per billion (ppb). So even if you think well this is only half a gallon of paint, or a pint of solvent, even after it is thoroughly mixed with water it could still cause problems.
 
Joannm said:
I don’t throw paint down the toilet but I do clean brushes in the sink. How else are you supposed to clean the paint off brushes?
Click to expand...
I’m a technical theatre student, and when working in the scenic art shop the scenic artist told me that they pour excess paint (or squeeze out paint-filled brushes) into spooge buckets (a 5 gallon bucket) to be taken away to facilties where they dispose of hazardous waste. Rising off used brushes with some paint in them is not illegal: dumping lots of paint down the sink is.
 
I used to paint cars for a living and if it is a water based primer/paint, OSHA doesn’t require you to keep it as a hazardous material. In the sink it can go. Urethanes had to be cleaned with thinners. Extra urethane was dumped in a can, baked until hard, then could be thrown away in the garbage and the thinner was recycled using a distiller. The waste from that was supposed to go in a 55 gallon drum to be taken care of by a hazardous waste company like Saftey Clean. Same with aerosol cans that still held material after the pressure was gone, punctured and in the drum they went. Tim
 
Marsha_Adams said:
What you need to realize is that wastewater treatment plants do not remove chemicals from the water, only the biologicals. So if you are flushing solvents or pouring them down the drain they are not being removed. Acceptable toxic chemical levels are measured parts per billion (ppb). So even if you think well this is only half a gallon of paint, or a pint of solvent, even after it is thoroughly mixed with water it could still cause problems.
Click to expand...
We seem to be in the minority here. Everyone else can’t figure out how to rinse off paint brushes without pouring paint down the sink. Oh well…I know that I can’t put partial cans of paint in my trash so I’ll just go and pour them down the sink. I know, I know, you’re just cleaning paint brushes. Not a whole lot of paint there. But now multiply that by a whole lot of painters…Give up…:bigyikes:
 
Something I never thought about. I painted the entire inside of my house a couple of years ago, but always poured the remaining paint back in the can. The paint cans with paint should be given to the city for disposal.

I am guilty of washing brushes in my kitchen sink. 😊
 
Call your area hazardous waste office and ask about the specifics of the law. Then do your best. Then if you are fired for following the law, file a complaint.
 
Water based Latex paints coming off a rinsed brush are not a hazard. It is non-toxic in the quantities it leaves your house and will settle in the sludge digesters at the treatment plant, not get dumped in rivers. Sludge gets landfilled or applied to non-food cropland as fertilizer.

Extra paint in cans should be left open or poured in a wide shallow bin until it dries then it can be landfilled (just like most sludge).
 
manualman said:
Water based Latex paints coming off a rinsed brush are not a hazard. It is non-toxic in the quantities it leaves your house and will settle in the sludge digesters at the treatment plant, not get dumped in rivers. Sludge gets landfilled or applied to non-food cropland as fertilizer.

Extra paint in cans should be left open or poured in a wide shallow bin until it dries then it can be landfilled (just like most sludge).
Click to expand...
This man has a handle on the regs. Water based or latex paint left over is to be dried and disposed of in the rubbish (cans as well when dry.) Solvent based paints and solvents are to be taken to a hazardess waste collection point. They cannot be dumped in the rubbish and really should not be allowed to dry out and then be dumped as the solvents pollute the air even more. Some states have very strong restrictions on the use of solvent based anything so one needs to read up on the local regs.

Brushes, rollers etc. can usually be cleaned in a sink or whatever and the dirty water flushed down the drain. Too much of this kind of thing can stop up your drains so be aware of that. If the weather is nice the use of a garden hose in the yard is personally recommended. Can leave discolored grass however, but it goes away.
 
A fire last year in a sealed paint barrel brought a change in the rles in some places: Now they want you to leave them uncovered prior to taking them to Haz Waste while before they wanted them covered tightly. I don’t know which it is where the OP lives. It may depend on climate or the temp. of the workplace.
 
The paint will end up in a sewage treatment facility where it will be burned in a furance with air scrubbers, thus it is not a danger at all to the enviroment. What is against the law is Discharging pollutants to storm drains which will likely empty out into a river or lake. However, any chemicals could pose a health threat to maintenance workers in sewers. So, for their sake don’t do it.
 
If you are in doubt, google the paint by Manufacturer, paint name, and the letters MSDS. The Material Safety Data Sheet provides the information needed to comply with Federal Law.

State law supercedes only if it is stricter than the Federal mandate.

Some paints are oil based and pose significant ecological danger, & some paints and most thinners contain toluene or xylene which are flammable and *pose a significant risk to human life * due to fire. It actually has to be disposed of as a hazardous waste. On the MSDS such paints would have a RCRA waste code D001.

Your legal obligations will vary depending on the quantity of material involved. If you keep the paint in the original quart and gallon sized quatities, none of these dangers or the regulations will apply because of an exemption known as ORM-D. If you have 3, 5, or 55 gallon drums of the stuff, even waterbased paints will require a non-haz manifest.

Your moral obligations require that since you know of the potential harm to human life and to the environment (God did give man the earth to tend and care for) that you exercise due diligence to educate yourself to the danger and take reasonable and prudent steps to abate that danger.

Moral obligation supercedes only if it is stricter than the Federal mandate.😃

You can find all the information you need here: www.epa.org search for RCRA.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top