Pollution

                   As I was cleaning up my tools and a table full of paint stuff, I was thinking about what this does to the environment and what would be the least polluting way to approach my job. Nowadays they have “low VOC” paints, which means they don’t evaporate such bad fumes. They are also all water-based. I am questioning what kind of damage they do to the environment, and I am not expecting honest answers from the industry. I am expecting the truth from my own eyes and experiences without bias. The reason why I cannot trust the industry is because the owners of a paint company can only talk for themselves with their own interests in mind.

                  Selling the “Green Concept” has been great for all sorts of products and is not necessary great for plants, animals and water. (And therefore not for us ordinary people who have no shares in the company’s profits)It is not true that if we buy more paint the fish are going to flourish;  it’s actually quite the contrary. The buckets which carry the paint are made of thick plastic. I would guess that it would take 120 years before something like that would deteriorate. Think about it, having a whole building painted probably takes 80 buckets. Do you know how many new buildings are erected each day that need to be painted?

                 The super low VOC paint that goes in it is of a high quality and does not smell. Just rinse out rollers and brushes with water and everybody is happy. But the paint still has solvents and material that is not food for the fish. I once witnessed a so-called painter who could not care less for anything except his pay check, throw half a bucket of paint on a thick roller down the drain. Where does that go? Professional painters know that left over paint should be dried out and than discarded. Even rinsing brushes takes a lot of clean water.  Usually I do not rinse rollers at all but just throw them away when the job is done.

                   Is oil paint all that bad? I have hardly any left -overs from oil paint. I rinse my brushes and pour the dirty juice into a clear bottle. The sediment goes to the bottom and the top will be re-used. )This is after I have cleaned my brushes with a paper towel and some Vaseline.) The vapors might be bad but if you are conscious about handling the solvent and keep lids on jars,  it does not do anything bad for the fish. There is also hardly any left over from the paint itself because it does not dry fast on the palette so you can use it days on end.                              

                   Yesterday I had thick layers of dried acrylic paint on the edges of the jars. Most of it I could peel off and throw in a garbage bag, but the rest? Does a Snapper thinks he eats a small fish when he sees a sliver of blue paint moving around in the water? Is this the reason why we all get cancer sooner or later? Which we then need to treat with even more poisonous stuff that goes also in the water through the dump and rain. Is there somebody out there who is able to see the overall picture of our behavior and can give an honest answer without the interest of some company in mind? Should there not be an animal rights activist who stands up for the ecosystem as a whole? We cannot get our information through marketing sales people. By the way, is there some one out there who really cares?

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