Protecting Our Planet by Reducing Waste in the Decorating Industry

At Mylands, we're always assessing our environmental impact and how we can improve it, and we're proud to have partnered with InUse ReUse and Community RePaint to help reduce the amount of paint going to waste.

Why is this an issue?

The decorating industry creates a lot of waste, and we're committed to changing that by finding new ways to work. Paint waste remains a persistent issue in the construction and home improvement sector, as high-quality paint can become surplus due to cancelled or amended customer orders, mis-tints or over-produced batches, and leftover ingredients from manufacturing. Although this paint is perfectly usable, it faces disposal because historically there hasn't been anywhere to take it.

What is the solution?

After using as much of our surplus paint as we can to make our Upcycled range, we now donate what's left to InUse ReUse, a DIY store in Brixton that works with Community RePaint to distribute paint and sundries that would otherwise have gone to waste. They collect the paint, repackage it and redistribute it through their platform in Brixton, preventing high-quality paint from being wasted, making sustainable, premium paint accessible at a lower price, and extending the life of existing materials.

As InUse ReUse is based in Brixton, the paint moves only within Lambeth, so we avoid unnecessary carbon emissions and support our local area; Mylands has operated out of Lambeth since 1884, and supporting the local area and economy has always been a high priority.

Benefits and aims

There are several benefits to this scheme: waste reduction, keeping surplus paint in circulation; measuring the paint collected so we can create impact reports; giving customers access to premium, sustainably produced paint at a lower price; creating a scalable model for reuse beyond traditional donation systems; and reducing the need for new materials and production. We want to encourage the sector to innovate and replicate the model, and we hope that by leading the way we'll encourage other companies to monitor their waste and emissions and find better solutions.

We'll continue working to find new ways to challenge the decorating industry and improve how we operate. Read about our Planet Mark certification, showing our commitment to sustainability and innovation.