Our Guide to ‘Eco-Friendly’ Paint

More often than not ‘eco-friendly’ paint brands are bundled together in a press feature or by the other brands, when actually all these products, ours included, are made very differently and with very different ingredients, some more environmentally responsible than others.

First things first, ‘eco-friendly’ is becoming a very loosely used phrase, that’s why you might notice we don’t use it that much! At this point being a friend to the environment really isn’t enough anymore, instead we need to start thinking of sustainable brands as ‘eco-saviours’.

With a multitude of sins being hidden behind these ‘eco-friendly’ labels we have done our own guide to ‘eco-friendly’ paint, which will hopefully help you navigate the greenwashing and know what to look out for, how to decide if something is really as eco-conscious as it says and unpicking some commonly used ‘eco’ credentials.

Many brands use the phrase ‘water-based’ as a marketing tool to sound more sustainable however the reality is that really ALL house paint contains water and most often water makes up the majority of the product (often 60%). We regularly wonder why brands talk about being ‘water-based’ as if it is something new or particularly ‘eco’, but we think it may be because it’s the easiest ingredient to make sound sustainable and the only one they want to mention as the rest would not sound appealing to us if they were honest enough to declare them!

Our paint is water-based and so we use the term but we also declare the other ingredients we use because we believe the customer should choose paint on the basis of having all the information! So when we see this ‘buzz word’ we should ask if it is just been used to confuse customers into thinking a paint is more sustainable than it is. It’s not the water we should be worrying about!

Click here and discover our colours that cannot be copied – timeless, living, breathing colours that work.

A VOC is a Volatile Organic Compound that can dissipate into the air. The word is thrown around a lot in the paint industry therefore leaving customers Very Often Confused! VOCs are responsible for the odour of scents and perfumes as well as pollutants. So a nice smelling flower is giving off VOC’s in the same way a chemical solvent would give off horrible smelling and harmful VOC’s. It is important to understand that some VOCs are dangerous to human health or cause harm to the environment and others are simply a result of an organic process.

The harmful VOC’s attributed to paint have been regulated since 2010 and there are upper levels permitted, although the persistence of the VOC in the air is not part of this control. It is usually because of the use of chemical solvents that VOC’s are present in paint and even at low levels they cause harm to some people and to be honest you can usually smell them! Logically a water-based paint, particularly emulsion, should not have more than a zero to 1 VOC level.

‘VOC FREE’ ‘ZERO VOC’ 

We don’t believe there is such thing as ‘VOC Free’ or ‘Zero VOC’s’ in anything other than a very controlled lab test. We live with VOC’s all the time as even cutting the grass or peeling an orange gives off VOC’s. Many people will light a VOC emitting scented candle for well-being! That’s why we are always clear that our paint does not contain the sort of harmful VOC’s that are produced through using synthetic chemicals or solvents.

We believe in the virtues of sample pots, to choose your colours simply click here where we teach you the basics on how to use them in your space.

It’s important to note that pigments, colourants and dyes are NOT the same thing – some being naturally occurring and the others being artificially created.

We use earth and mineral pigments like they did in the olden days! Although they have been updated, for example we now use manganese oxide (or Spinel) pigments as we are not prepared to use the worst heavy metal pigments (this is why you will find nor bright red in our range – as well as Edward finding it one of the least useful colours for wall painting!)

The source of the pigments is very important. Like all ingredients we use, it’s important to know where they have come from and how they have been obtained, it’s crucial to look out for Modern Slavery protection labels that can help ensure all the ingredients in the product you are using have been sourced responsibly and that the people involved in their manufacturing have been protected from harm and exploitation.

Many modern manufacturers use azo dyes, which are a combination of chemical compounds used to dye chalk which is then referred to as a ‘pigment’ – so even ‘pigment rich’ does not mean what you might suppose!

We believe we are alone in the paint industry in using only natural earth and mineral pigments to colour our paints. Modern paints, including other natural paints, generally use Azo dyes produced by global corporations as their colourants. There is a reason why we have a limited number of colours we can make – because we create our colours from 12 selected earth and mineral pigments, rather than the unlimited number of chemical combinations other paint makers are using.

To see a full list of our ingredients, please click here.

The binder is what brings all the ingredients in paint together and gives it the quality to become a durable material. The binder is where the crucial difference lies when it comes to distinguishing a natural paint from an acrylic one; in fact, what is good for the planet and what is not.

The binders in modern acrylic and vinyl paint literally become plastic when dry – they come in a number of guises and under many names, but it’s basically the same by-product of the fossil fuel industry and it can account for up to 40% of the volume of many modern paints (this is before the addition of microbeads, that could be another 10%). We do not understand why a paint that is 30-50% made from an oil or gas derivative can be called ‘eco-friendly’.

Here is where we are different, we use a binder which is made from polymer chains that are constructed from ingredients derived from wheat and maize straw – paint made from plants – it’s as simple as that!

We like many others are in awe of modern science and the technology that allows manufacturers to create binders out of annual crops, as opposed to fossil fuels. This is the only way to honestly (and honourably) substantiate an ‘eco-friendly’ claim in our view. Our natural alternative, which has taken years to perfect, has become as durable as the petro-chemical derived alternative and we think everyone should be striving to make these changes if we are going to be truly environmentally responsible and become ‘eco-saviours’ rather than just a very distant and tenuous ‘eco-friend’.

To put it simply, don’t buy paint made from plastic. It is not necessary to make paint in this way.

Recycled packaging is all well and good but if the product that is going into this packaging still contains toxic ingredients, microbeads or harmful acrylics then it doesn’t really matter how recycled or recyclable your packaging is! Especially as more often than not paint ends up in our water systems or soil. And so if it is packed full of synthetic chemicals and microbeads then when you rinse the tin for recycling you are doing further damage, even if you recycle it afterwards.

We have found tins to be the best way to package our paint as it is the most widely recycled material and can be continuously recycled, some other companies have chosen plastic tubs or pouches but having done our research we believe that because plastic containers are often made up from multiple different parts which all need recycling slightly differently; a pouch for example, uses different types of plastic for the pouch, lid and seal – like a milk bottle, this all has to be separated efficiently to be properly recycled in specific facilities. Add to this that the paint cannot be used from the pouch and will be decanted it is likely that a further plastic container or paint tray will be involved.

Supplying paint in a tin means that for painting things like woodwork or cutting in you can dip your brush directly into it, rather than having to decant the paint. When using rollers we always recommend those made from reusable or renewable materials like hemp. Tools, trays and dust sheets are a further waste burner for the environment if not recycled, recyclable or reusable. But being recyclable is not the whole story if the paint is not itself compostable but instead chemical waste.

The bottom line is that only if the paint is made from ingredients recognised by nature then they can be harmlessly processed and reintegrated with the soil by living organisms, microbes and bacteria – we know this process as composting! Our paint is fully compostable at the end of life, we wonder how may other paints can claim this?

To find out more about the packaging we use, click here.

Let’s be clear that pretty much ALL paint is organic, because it will have carbon compounds in it.

The point is what is the source of those organic compounds – is it crude oil or gas – animal and plant matter that has been dead for millennia and brought from deep under the earth’s surface?

OR is the plant matter from this year’s straw (as ours is) – an annual and renewable source of carbon compounds.

You do not have to be a chemist to buy paint, but nor should you be misled. Did you think that when the paint is described as organic or containing organic ingredients that they came from certified Organic farming? If so that is exactly what you were supposed to think! Frankly, the use of the term really is putting the green into greenwashing!

Greenwashing exists in every industry and the paint industry is no exception. It has adopted prefixes that we have unpicked above such as ‘water-based’ or ‘low VOC’ or ‘eco-friendly’, yet in many cases nothing significant has changed. Nine times out of ten, we believe, the use of the term ‘eco-friendly’ when it comes to paint is greenwashing. We always advise customers to ask for a list of ingredients – and that is all the ingredients – and ask how the paint is made and can be safely disposed of before buying it.

We know how much greenwashing is out there and so we have always strived to give our customers as much information as possible in order for them to make an informed decision. To find out more, take a look at our blog with words by our founder and eco ‘worrier’ Edward Bulmer.

We hope this guide can help you navigate your way to making the best paint choice for you, your home and our earth! We are always here to answer any questions or give technical advice, simply drop us an email to info@edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk, call our HQ on 01544388535 or visit our NEW London showroom at 194 Ebury Street.

Paint:

Plastic Paints the Environment – Study by Environmental Action https://www.e-a.earth/_files/ugd/425198_124f1394eaa84afeaf74b22a99c50146.pdf

Plastic:

Turning the Tide on Plastic: How Humanity (And You) Can Make Our Globe Clean Again – Lucy Siegle 

Environment:

Silent Spring – Rachel Carson

Last days of Ancient Sunlight – Tom Hartmann

Earth in the Balance (The Inconvenient truth) – Al Gore

The revenge of Gaia – James Lovelock

The One-Straw Revolution – Masanobu Fukuoka

The World we Made – Jonathan Porritt

Good Food for everyone Forever – Colin Tudge

Heat – George Monbiot

Falter – Bill McKibben

This changes everything – Naomi Klein

The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future – David Wallace-Wells

How Bad are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything – Mike Berners-Lee

Is It Really Green?: Everyday Eco Dilemmas Answered – Georgina Wilson-Powell