Latex paint in compost!

gwfrase · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 1

I have been composting for years, but have no idea what to do with this. My painters rinsed their brushes into my compost bin.

Dchall_San_Antonio · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 2001 Location: San Antonio,TEXAS

They didn't do you any real favors, but as long as it was latex, at least they did minimal harm. Latex dries to a plastic material that resists microbial decomposition. At least it should kill anything.

Enzyme11 · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Posts: 277

gwfrase wrote: I have been composting for years, but have no idea what to do with this. My painters rinsed their brushes into my compost bin.

If it's acrylic latex, it probably is a styrene and/or butadiene polymer variant, which yields nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons such as styrene/butadiene as breakdown products. That's quite a bit different from natural rubber latex, but then latex paint is designed to resist biodegradation. (Imagine how much non-degradable paint is used in the world in a year and how many brushes are washed off in kitchen sinks!) Even so, a robust compost pile should do as good a job as any with it. I doubt the amount is large, so I'd probably compost away. The option is to dump it, ultimately in a landfill, which I don't think is a very good choice.