Drying Out Unwanted Paint.

[Bigbad]

According to my local council, if you dry out paint and the tins, they can be disposed of in with the usual household rubbish.
I made a couple of troughs out of foil and poured the paint in them. The troughs sat in the sun for a week, then went in the garage for 4 days when it was raining, and they’ve been back in the sun for 2 days, but the paint has hardly dried out at all. Just gone slightly hard on top.
Is it likely to dry completely, or should I give up?

[bookbinder]

It looks as if the paint in the troughs is too deep to dry out. For paint to dry out, it should be just a thin layer on a surface of some kind. Paint in troughs is behaving just like paint in tins. Try pouring the paint into even shallower containers, and make it approx. quarter-inch deep.

[diddlydo]

Errrr - why not just put the whole tin in the bin??

[murraymints]

flammable ..can't go in bin..take to your local tip..mine has a special bit for paint

[douglas9401]

Why not decorate all or part of the inside of the garage with the paint?

[Bigbad]

Errr diddlydo, paint is classed as hazardous waste, which our recycling centres stopped accepting a few years back, so the only option is a specially arranged collection (I haven’t got enough) or drying it out.
The foil troughs are quite long, and the paint is spread quite thinly, so I can’t understand why it’s taking so long.

[Old_Geezer]

Leave the paint in the garage for a decade or two, and it'll have dried itself out.

[mazie]

Our recycling does as well Minty. In fact most things can be taken there. We were amazed. In England there are so many things they won't take

[melv16]

Some decorators merchants will take it off your hands. You could give them a ring for nowt.

[RobNorth]

"Dried out" tins of paint can easily self-combust, depending on the quantity and how they are stored, particularly if any other material such as rag or paper containing paint/turps is in contact with them.