A new initiative repurposes leftover paint, promoting sustainability and affordability in Limerick
A new social enterprise store aiming to reduce waste and promote sustainability has officially opened today, March 6, in Limerick. Re-Love Paint launched at Unit 17, Galvone Industrial Estate, is an initiative by Tait House Community Enterprise in collaboration with Limerick City and County Council. The project collects surplus water-based paint from the Mungret Civic Amenity Centre, repurposes it, and resells it to the public at an affordable price.
Speaking at the launch, Councillor Pádraigh Reale, who attended on behalf of the Mayor, described Re-Love Paint as “a shining example of how we can reduce waste by transforming it into resources, high quality and neat colours.” He emphasised that the project not only reduces environmental impact but also inspires community-led sustainability efforts.
Giving Waste Paint a New Life
The process behind Re-Love Paint is simple but impactful. Instead of being incinerated, leftover paint is collected, filtered, re-coloured, and remixed into unique shades. This initiative provides a cost-effective and eco-friendly alternative for households, community groups, clubs, and schools looking to purchase paint while supporting sustainability efforts.
Michael Quilligan, General Manager of Tait House, highlighted the importance of this project, saying: “What we’re doing here is we’re rescuing paint from incineration, so paints that could be reused. So we take it from the Civic Community Centre in Mungret, we bring it back here, we repurpose it, remix it, and we can sell it for a very good price to people that, you know, that want to paint maybe cheaper than the norm to use in their houses.”
Re-love Paint social enterprise store at unit 17
A Step towards a greener future
The launch event also featured Pauline McDonogh from the Southern Region Waste Planning Office, who stressed the need for more initiatives like Re-Love Paint. “I just wanted, I suppose, to set the scene a little bit and to applaud Tait House in joining the paint reuse network, which is a really valuable network that we manage through the regional waste planning offices. But as you mentioned, 40 years ago, sustainability wasn’t on our agenda. It so firmly is now. Our world is collapsing without doing initiatives like this and by ensuring that we try and keep resources in play for as long as possible.”
She further emphasised the urgency of waste reduction, explaining: “Last year, Ireland engaged a consultancy company to look at what our circularity rate is. And when we talk about circularity, it means what materials are being reused in our country. 2.7% of materials. All that we’re using. But 97%? Everything we consume comes from virgin resources, so we need to stop it. And we need to. And this is how embedding paint reuse, furniture reuse, textile reuse, recycling all of these things change that figure, and it’s really important to us not only about our own lives, but also for the future.”
Councillor Reale encouraged more community-driven recycling initiatives, adding: “I’m delighted to be here today. It’s a fantastic social enterprise. Any social enterprise that can be supported should be supported. But this has a really positive impact, I suppose, on waste and on creating that, as I said, a more circular economy. So it’s a fantastic initiative along with the staff here at Tait House to go out to the Civic Community Centre in Mungret, collect and use paint, come in, repurpose it and then set it back into the community. So again, look, it’s reducing waste.”