Get PaintWise with Resene

More than six litres of household paint is sold each year for each and every person here. That's a lot of paint particularly as much of it is left sitting in paint containers and ends up in landfills. There are lots of ways you can reduce this burden on the environment... here's some ideas to get you started:

Resene donates recycled paint, known as Resene EchoPaint, to community groups for their activities. If you’re part of a community group that needs paint, click here to find out more and apply.

Be PaintWise!

Bring unwanted paint and paint containers into your local Resene ColorShop and let us recycle or dispose of them responsibly. Resene will offer good quality Resene paint to community groups for reuse, recycle packaging materials that are recyclable, send solventborne paints to solvent recovery, find alternative uses for waterborne paints, such as graffiti abatement, and dispose of the rest for you.

Selected Resene ColorShops have been designated as Resene PaintWise Collection Centres. Drop off your unwanted paint and paint containers to any of these designated Resene ColorShops at any time during their opening hours.

You are welcome to bring back any brand of decorative paint. A small charge applies to non-Resene branded product to help offset the costs of the PaintWise programme. Find out more about the PaintWise levy.

View Resene PaintWise acceptance list.

We can only accept items listed on the PaintWise acceptance list. We do not recycle paper, cardboard, batteries or any other general recycling – contact your local Council for assistance with recycling other items. Due to Government regulations there are limits on how much recycled paint can be held in any location at one time, which means from time to time a store may not be able to accept your returns immediately and may ask you to return them at another time.

Resene PaintWise Collection Centres

Resene PaintWise Collection Centres North Island ColorShops

Resene PaintWise Collection Centres South Island ColorShops



Due to safety requirements, paint and paint containers will only be accepted at these Resene ColorShops during normal store hours. Sorry, paint and packaging returns cannot be accepted by any other Resene ColorShops.

When dropping off paint and paint containers:

Ensure paint is in its original correctly labelled container.

Ensure containers are well sealed and will not leak.

Leave small amounts of waterborne paint in its container, put out of reach of children and leave the lid off for the paint to dry then bring it in to one of the Resene ColorShops detailed above.

We cannot accept: Aerosols or any other materials - contact your local council for recommended disposal. We can only accept automotive and marine paints made or sold by Resene Group companies.

Resene Automotive and Light Industrial also provides a paint and paint recycling programme in Resene Automotive stores.

Products made or sold by Resene Automotive can be returned to any Resene Automotive store. Please note acceptance criteria differs from the Resene ColorShop PaintWise service. See your Resene Automotive and Light Industrial store for details.

The Resene Automotive stores that can accept Resene Automotive and Light Industrial product returns are:

Resene Automotive Stores Website Whangarei: 27 Reyburn Street, Whangarei Ph: (09) 259 2738 Open: Mon-Fri 7.30am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Auckland: 4 Te Apunga Place, Mt Wellington, Auckland Ph: (09) 438 8629 Open: Mon-Fri 8.00am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Hamilton: 593 Te Rapa Road, Hamilton Ph: (07) 849 7798 Open: Mon-Fri 8.00am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Tauranga: 47 Waihi Road, Judea, Tauranga Ph: (07) 574 0331 Open: Mon-Fri 8.00am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Rotorua: 10-12 Old Taupo Road, Rotorua Ph: (07) 349 3507 Open: Mon-Fri 8.00am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Napier: 75 Austin Street, Onekawa, Napier Ph: (06) 843 2914 Open: Mon-Fri 8.00am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. New Plymouth: 18d Smart Road, New Plymouth Ph: (06) 759 8422 Open: Mon-Fri 8.00am-5:00pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Palmerston North: 217 Main Street, Palmerston North Ph: (06) 354 6201 Open: Mon-Fri 8.00am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Wellington: 7 Horlor Street, Naenae, Wellington Ph: (04) 577 8108 Open: Mon-Fri 8.00am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Nelson: 12 Natalie Street, Nelson Ph: (03) 548 3680 Open: Mon-Fri 7.30am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Christchurch: 234-236 Lichfield Street, Christchurch Ph: (03) 365 6989 Open: Mon-Fri 7.30am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Timaru: 54 Stafford Street, Timaru Ph: (03) 684 7185 Open: Mon-Fri 7.30am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours. Dunedin: 20 McBride Street, Dunedin Ph: (03) 455 1865 Open: Mon-Fri 7.30am-4:30pm. Opening hours may differ during holiday periods and on public holidays - please check with the store for opening hours.

The Resene PaintWise programme is managed by the Resene Foundation, a charitable trust underwritten by Resene. The ongoing service is funded by Resene, a PaintWise levy of 15c per litre on retail purchases on Resene paints and a levy on returns of non-Resene branded paint and trade returns.

The Resene PaintWise service has collected in over 3 million packs already. Of this over 400,000kg of steel has been recycled and over 200,000kg of plastic. Over 500,000 litres of solventborne paint has been sent to solvent recovery and over 250,000 litres of paint has been donated to cover graffiti and other community projects.

The Resene Foundation’s PaintWise product stewardship scheme was accredited by the Ministry for the Environment under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 in August 2011.



Just one of the many projects helped with Resene PaintWise EchoPaint donations.

Turn your empty pails into endless hours of entertainment for children – pails make great drums!

Do as the Stand up for Children team did and make the most of your leftovers by painting a colourful fence or recycled tyres for a garden feature.

Remember when you come in, also bring any unwanted old and foreign coins with you for the Heads Up for Kids campaign, which helps kiwi kids through Lions Clubs nationwide.

And bring in any unwanted mobile phones for the RE:MOBILE programme to help Sustainable Coastlines.