Environmentally friendly brush water disposal

[ced1106]

> The only safe way for disposing of plastics is not use them in the first place. 

Yeah, that. I figure that not going to a coffee shop reduces plastic use for the cup and stirrer, gas from the car, money from the wallet, and blood sugar level because I like the flavored stuff. I imagine not smoking and eating out less also helps, not to mention all the junk we buy out of obligation around the holidays.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. While it's still delaying the inevitable, I know I'd just be throwing out the vitamin bottles and milk caps, for example, that I use for rinse jars and dry palettes for painting. Sprues I keep around for terrain bits and should use for sprue goo. Of course, not painting because I'm lazy helps out...

[Ockius]

The mention of the landfill leachate above interested me and sent me off reading a couple of scientific papers on this. I see the issue, that plastic particles can escape even when properly disposed of in landfill, so there is no perfect solution. However, it still seems to me that rather than sending nano-plastic particles (the plastics in paints that are even smaller than microplastics) straight into the water where they are small enough to get through even the filtering at waste water processing plants, it is better to put some dried up, coagulated films of plastic (dried paint) into a landfill. Much of the plastic will remain in the landfill, even if a small proportion manages to get broken up into micro/nano-plastics again and leached into water systems.

Basically, I would suggest doing this is not solving the problem, but is better than doing nothing!


Postscript: of course, paint from our hobby is probably an infinitesimally tiny proportion of the problem from paint microplastics. Paint is the biggest source of microplastics in the sea, but a lot apparently comes from the protective coatings on ships and boats being weathered or sanded down and repainted. But every little helps.

[Vanvlak]

This thread was an eye-opener. It might seem futile, but it's like the lead pile, each model finished is one closer to completing a life's work; so each tiny amount of particles prevented from draining away is a small step towards diminishing the problem.
So far I found two solutions: using the smallest amount of paint possible, of course, and trying to use as much of it up as possible. And then straining the water pot through an old T-shirt, which collects as least some of the pigment particles. When it's all used up it will still go to a landfill (unless I sell it off as art  ), but that is marginally better I guess.

[FifteensAway]

There may not be an "upside" for industry to tackle plastics but if it doesn't get tackled then plastics (and I'm as guilty as ever with all my plastic storage containers I'm afraid) threaten the livability of this planet and put us all in dire jeopardy.

So, the race is on - will plastics do us in before we breed ourselves into oblivion (overpopulation)?

If we don't figure it out, Mother Earth/Father Nature will figure it out with something that will make the Plague and Covid combined pale to minor episodes of illness. 

Or maybe it will be what put us in this mess in the first place that does us in - medicine, some well meaning treatment will turn on us and do us all in.  That whole 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' is what lead to so many humans breeding so fast that we are now consuming the (semi-)finite biomass faster than it can replicate itself - meaning all those disease irradicating medicines that led to longer lives and lower mortality rates, especially youth mortality. 

And then there is what I call the "feed the starving millions today, watch the starving billions tomorrow" phenomena; the point is coming where the whole moral imperative that every 'human' life is of value is going to not just fall apart but get totally shredded. 

No? 

Try putting ten people on a deserted island that can only support two people, and just barely, and walk away for a decade or two. 

Now multiply that island into the entire planet. 

The reality of Soylent Green is dead ahead for a coming generation.

Now isn't all this a pleasant future to consider?  And then we all go back to our complacent lives and pat ourselves on our backs for the good we do individually.  Very much a First World mindset, the Third World doesn't give a crap about the environment when food is in so short supply that starvation is a real threat.  And that is notwithstanding the 'elites' of the third world making environmental noise but reality bites hard into those who haven't eaten for a few days.

Now, how long can you tread water when Greenland's ice sheet melts decades sooner than anyone accounted for and sea levels rise nearly 20' and displace billions of people around the globe?

Have a nice day, "Irving". 

[Tactalvanic]

lots of google later and several blogs having their own list of "things" which happens to be the same one so who knows really who's list it is:

Evaporate - clean solids

Use a drain screen. This is the simplest solution for removing the solids from your paint water.

Use more clean water to dilute the paint water. This method assumes the use of a drain screen as well, add lots of tap water to my paint bucket and them pour a small amount down the drain, add more water and repeat until it’s all disposed of.

Use a coffee filter. This is an easy and inexpensive approach.

Use clumping cat litter. Bin it. With this approach, none of your paint water goes down the drain. Cat might get annoyed/change colour if you co-opt their litter tray.

Use the GOLDEN Artist Colors “Crash” System. It comes with buckets, filters and cleaning/neutralizing agents to completely clean your paint water.

eg?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Golden-Solids-Acrylic-Cleaning-System/dp/B08F7YQGY1


Use a sand and gravel pit. approx. 1’-6” to 2’-0” deep. Add 6-10” of sand in the bottom and cover with 10-12” of gravel. You can also add a screen over the top of the pit if desired (to catch the paint solids). You pour the paint water onto the gravel and the gravel and sand naturally clean and filter the water. which is of course debatable considering the particle sizes in question

May dig a new latrine pit as well?

Use a solids separator on your plumbing pipes. This is expensive...

Guess that shows lots of people thinking about it.

Supermarket method - choose to do something like any of the above - "Every little helps"

then maybe our descendants or whatever evolves next, won't hate us so much if we have any, and if they manage to survive.

Either way our layer in the geological record will be an interesting and complicated one.

[carlos marighela]

I'm not convinced that using more water than is necessary for a task is actually delivering a more eco friendly outcome.

If you really want to make an impact consider starting with your laundry. The microfibers shed in machine laundering synthetic materials are a significant contributor to the accretion of microplastics in the world's oceans. Consider buying more clothing made only with natural fibres* (harder than you think) and hand washing all your clothes. Halve the amount of laundry powder/ liquid you use .That not only provides eco friendly outcomes but has been demonstrated to be actually more efficient in cleaning.


* Of course modern cotton production is extremely harmful to the environment as it is hugely inefficient in the use of irrigation water. Just ask the folk who used to live by the Aral Sea.

[zemjw]

Jackson's Art did a recent blog post on this very subject - https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2023/09/28/acrylic-painting-rinse-water-microplastics/

[Vanvlak]

Jackson's Art did a recent blog post on this very subject - https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2023/09/28/acrylic-painting-rinse-water-microplastics/

Intereting - thanks for the link