Modern Paints and the Environment

Paints can be very much a huge part of our lives that we often dont even think about. How many gallons of paint hung over your head in your bed last night, or how many gallons of paint did you sit inside of on your way to work in the car, and while in the car how many gallons of paint did you drive over on the highway in just a short 30 minute drive? A LOT is the answer - A LOT LOT LOT.

To answer the road marking paint question I can do some math - you get about 300 ft per gallon in regular marking paint, 150 ft per gallon if it has received 2 coats. If that 30 minute drive took place in the country and you averaged 55mph, that is 27.5 miles each way to go to work. A road with a double yellow and a single white on each side will need 3,872 gallons of paint just to cover that trip, and that doesn't even count any turn lanes, stop bars, lane shifts, or other markings. A semi truck tanker holds around 5000 gallons, now think how many semis would be needed to cover a trip to your favorite vacation spot...

The average parking lot can use 15 gallons of paint for one striping application, and if the paint is hazardous it's a lot of material to be placing out in the open. Before current regulations the paints that were available to stripe parking lots were:

-flammable, or if in a sealed container I would argue explosive.

-transporting flammable paints would have also been hazardous, especially in another container like a van or truck with a topper.

-you would need to ground your container and machine together before filling because an accidental spark from static could start a fire.

-after spraying, the machinery would need cleaning, requiring gallons and gallons of solvent, yet another risk of fire or explosion, as well as a health hazard to the operator trying to clean up the equipment and potentially breathing the fumes or getting it on ones hands.

These solvent evaporate very quickly, and try as one might, a great deal of them would evaporate into our air from within the paint itself or while the operator is simply trying to clean the equipment. Fast forward to modern times, and thankfully, most paints are water based paints. House paints, and even the paint used on your car is a water based paint. There are still plenty of epoxies and other solvent based products being used, but the majority of products under normal circumstances can be cleaned up with water and do not pose a fire hazard.

Theres Always A Tradeoff

Theres always a tradeoff. That "healthy" food may not taste the same as what you were used to, or might not have an unrealistic shelf life that was so handy, just like modern chemicals may not meet the expectations we wish either. One downside to these water clean up paints is that they may not last as long or hold up as well, simply due to bonding. We all know water and oil don't mix, so oil spots from cars or fresh asphalt will not bond as well to modern paints. Its pretty hard to get an oil base substrate like asphalt to bond at all to a water base coating like paint, especially when being driven over by vehicles, but the manufacturers have done it and done it well. However, an adjustment in expected maintenance schedules to align expectations with what is now practical may be needed. The tradeoff is arguably acceptable in exchange for saving the health of all the people that manufacture, transport, and use the more hazardous paints, as well as our air and the environment which also suffers from their use.

From the perspective of a parking lot line striping company, its not fun telling a customer that they need to get their lines painted more often than they would have needed 10 years ago, it makes the customer feel like we are at fault for using inferior products or are lying to try and get them for more profits. That is completely not the case, and actually it is not our preference to restripe as often. Each time requires cleaning and prep work of the parking lot, and cleanup of the machinery, plus water paints are less expensive so the jobs are at a lower price, and actually has less money to spare anyways. We would much prefer to do a lot one time for a little more money than to do two separate trips meaning much more work for less money each time, but you will not hear any complaints here, because to get in the truck at the end of each day and know that we and those around us are safe is worth it.