DecoArt Launches Industry’s First Reclaimed and Recycled Acrylic Craft Paint

Artists now have a sustainable choice when it comes to selecting their craft paint. DecoArt, a manufacturer of acrylic paints and specialty finishes headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky has introduced DecoEARTH, an all-purpose acrylic paint made with 70% recycled material.

DecoEARTH Reclaimed Acrylics are made from recycled house paint initially destined for landfills. According to the EPA* 75,000,000 gallons of paint are wasted each year. Discarded paint is collected from centers across the United States. It is processed and sorted by like colors. The processed paint is sent to DecoArt’s manufacturing plant in Stanford, Kentucky, where materials and tints bring the reclaimed paint to DecoArt’s exacting quality and color specifications.

DecoEARTH comes in 27 colors that are both mixable and blendable. The product has a matte finish that offers excellent, smooth coverage and adheres to various surfaces. The product is water-based and easy to clean. DecoEARTH can be purchased online and soon in national retailers.

* EPA Paint Products Stewardship Initiative Evaluation, Nov. 2022

Coatings World recently spoke with Tom Schaub, Vice President, Business Development at DecoArt about the company and process of developing this unique product.

CW: Please provide some background information on your company. When was it founded?
Schaub: We have been a paint manufacturer in the arts and crafts industry for the past 40 years. If you’ve been to Michaels or JoAnn, you’ve probably seen our small 2-oz bottles in the paint aisles. DecoArt was launched in 1985 as a division of Ceramichrome, which produced glazes, molds, and other products for the ceramics industry. The DecoArt division focused on the growing arts and crafts category. Our signature brand, Americana Acrylics, was the primary brand in the early years, but our offerings have expanded to include numerous other paints and specialty finishes since then. The ceramics part of the business was sold off in the 90s.

CW: Where is the company located? 
Schaub: DecoArt operates from three facilities. The corporate headquarters is situated in Lexington, Kentucky. The manufacturing facility, spanning 115,000 sq. ft., is located in Stanford, Kentucky, where all the paints and specialty finishes are produced on a 14-acre site. Additionally, there is a 110,000 sq. ft. Distribution Center in Stanford.

CW: What types of paint and coatings products do you manufacture? 
Schaub: All the paints and coatings we manufacture are water-based acrylics. There is a wide range of products within this portfolio of products from glitter, glow in the dark, metallics, varnishes, neon, etc. We also cover all the various sheens from gloss to ultra matte and everything inbetween.

CW: What makes DecoEARTH unique, compared to other acrylic paint?
Schaub: DecoEARTH Reclaimed Acrylics is the first paint in the crafts and education market with a true sustainable story. It is made with 70% or more reclaimed paint across all 27 colors in the line. This offers art educators, crafters, makers, and artists a more sustainable option for their creative projects, something they can feel good about using.

Also, it is a premium all-purpose paint with incredible coverage and a buttery consistency that flows effortlessly off the brush. It is easily mixable to create beautiful custom colors with a gorgeous color palette and an amazing, durable matte finish. Artists and crafters love the quality. DecoEARTH is receiving rave reviews from customers online.

EPA Stat: Out of over 700 million gallons of house paint purchased yearly, 75 million gallons go unused and eventually head to the waste stream.

CW: What are the applications for your newest product DecoEARTH?
Schaub: It is an all-purpose paint. It works well on a variety of surfaces like canvas, wood, ceramic bisque, terra cotta, stone, paper, papier mache, styrofoam, most metals, and more.

CW: What is the process for formulating this paint?
Schaub: We partnered with a company in California called Encore. Encore has been working on reclaiming unused house paint for about five years before we started working with them a couple of years ago. How this works: there are PaintCare states, about 11 + DC and counting, that capture unused house paint at drop-off sites within the state.  (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Washington DC) There are over 2400 drop-off sites, mostly at paint retailers. Some of this paint gets shipped to the Encore facility in Sacramento, where it is hand-sorted. Unlabeled or hazardous material is discarded. The paint is then separated by hand into “like” colors where it is processed. It goes through a series of filtration systems, and then additional material is added to bring the paint back to specification. Every batch is different which makes this a bit challenging.

Encore, which, by the way, creates its own fine art reclaimed paint line called Tomorrow Artists, which has been well received by professional artists…. sends us bases to our facility in Kentucky, where we convert the bases into 27 beautiful colors for the DecoEARTH palette by adding things like the precise pigment formulation. For example, one of the bases is a blue base, which will be used to create the blue colors in the DecoEARTH line. There is also a red base to create the red colors, etc… So we have to do some work to the bases when they arrive to ensure they meet the high standards of DecoArt quality paint. Plus, we must make sure that if you purchase Berry Red today, you can be sure that if you purchase it again three years from now, you will get the exact same product – color, viscosity, performance, etc. Not only are we able to do this but this paint is actually a premium paint.