New Aus waste paint recycling plan set

A new campaign aims to use five million litres of paint that end up in Australian landfills to replace fossil fuel.

The Paintback program, funded by major paint companies and backed by state and federal governments, aims to collect more than 45,000 tonnes of waste paint and packaging from professional and home painters over the next five years.

It will then be turned into an alternative fuel source or recycled.

Professional painters are excluded from government-run schemes and need to pay $4 a litre to dispose of unwanted paint.

"The alternative (to this cost) is stockpiling or illegal dumping," Paintback chief executive Karen Gomez said on Friday.

Stage one of the roll-out, which will begin next week, will establish sites in every state and territory before the end of the year.

THE PAINTBACK SCHEME

* Aims to collect more than 45,000 tonnes of waste paint and packaging.

* Solvent paint will be used to replace fossil fuels.

* Water removed from acrylic paint will be recycled, reducing landfill.

* Industry will fund research to find better uses for unwanted paint.