Three people paint a colourful geometric design onto a garden fence

The story behind the art: how a waste authority came to sponsor two community art projects

  • Alec Saunders stands in front a large, colourful wall mural on a curved back wall behind a stage at Dugdale Arts Centre
  • A bright green canvas hanging depicting two young people in front of a tree
  • A wall painted in a colourful pink design with coloured spots and two silhouetted figures
  • A woman stands in front of a colourful mural featuring coloured silhouettes of multiple figures and faces
  • Two women smile at each other and hold paintbrushes in front of a colourfully painted garden fence
  • A man and woman paint a back fence with a colourful, wavy design
  • A rainbow painted onto a back fence
  • A colourful geometric design painted onto a back fence

A waste authority might seem like a pretty unlikely art patron. So how did North London Waste Authority (NLWA) end up sponsoring two stunning community art projects in Enfield and Tottenham? Well, the story starts back in 2023, when one of the recipients of NLWA’s North London Community Fund (NLCF) was the Forest Recycling Project (FRP) in Walthamstow. 

Paint – a surprisingly reusable item

FRP is a charity that helps north Londoners live more sustainably, with a range of initiatives in place that promote waste reduction and recycling. One of these initiatives is selling ‘reclaimed’ paint collected from north London’s reuse and recycling centres. 

Over 50 million litres of paint goes to waste each year in the UK, with many people unaware that their leftover paint can be used again. When north Londoners bring unwanted paint into the recycling centres, it doesn’t go straight into the general waste. Instead, because NLWA is part of the Community RePaint Scheme, we allow residents to pick up this paint for free. Whatever’s left is donated for FRP to on-sell at their shop and warehouse. 

FRP offers a great service, with a huge range of paint available and knowledgeable staff on-hand to provide advice and quality assurance. But even with a funding boost from the NLCF, there was still a challenge to tackle: how to get people to want to buy reclaimed paint instead of new.

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A man stands in amongst numerous paint cans in a warehouse

Promoting paint reuse: a scientific approach

NLWA was able to help solve this problem by drawing on our expertise in behaviour change science. Behaviour change science is an academic discipline which uses analysis and anthropological research to understand why people behave the way they do – and how to change those behaviours. 

To understand people’s attitudes to paint purchasing, the NLWA team looked at some academic research and did what’s known as a COM-B analysis: looking at capability [C], opportunity [O], and motivation [M] as three key factors in changing behaviour [B]).

The analysis identified a few main barriers that stop people from buying reclaimed paint, including:

  • they aren’t aware it exists
  • they have concerns about the quality of second-hand products.

So to get people using reclaimed paint instead of new, what the team needed to do was raise awareness of reclaimed paint as an alternative, while also showing off its quality – demonstrating that it could be just as beautiful as new paint. Thus the idea was born: why not create some amazing artwork for north Londoners to enjoy that used their own leftover paint, collected from local recycling centres?

Like most waste authorities, NLWA unfortunately doesn’t have an artist-in-residence. So the organisation put out a callout for collaborators, offering funding and free paint in exchange for the chance to showcase the potential of reclaimed paint. It wasn’t long before two groups got in touch – one in Enfield and one in Tottenham – jumping at the chance to work in partnership with NLWA.  

Dugdale Arts Centre 

The first group were the team at Dugdale Arts Centre (DAC), a beloved community space in Enfield. The team wanted to use a splash of colour to brighten up the centre and reflect the diverse community of Enfield. They had their hearts set on some beautiful wall murals, so commissioned four artists with a keen eye for large-scale art – Alec Saunders, Leanne Ingram, Chikaora Obiora and Laura McKendry. The DAC also ran community workshops to ensure the community’s vision and values were reflected in the final designs.  

NLWA’s contribution was to sponsor part of the commission fee and pay for the paint the artists sourced at the Forest Recycling Project. The artists got to browse the comprehensive range of paint on offer and hand-select the perfect hues for their artworks. 

Installation of the artworks took place in February, followed by a joyful launch event in March attended by NLWA, local residents, the team at Dugdale and the artists themselves. 

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A group of people hold up their hands and smile in front of a wall mural

Friends of Hartington Park & Carbuncle Passage

Carbuncle Passage in Tottenham (running along the backs of houses on Poynton Road and Roseberry Avenue) was a little unloved, grey and overgrown. But residents’ group Friends of Hartington Park & Carbuncle Passage were determined to give it a spruce up with a fresh coat of paint – literally – so readily agreed to collaborate with NLWA and give reclaimed paint a go. 

The plan was to paint eye-catching, colourful designs onto four back fences, so NLWA was more than happy to pay for a shopping trip at FRP where the residents got to pick a range of the boldest and brightest colours. With our head office just around the corner from Carbuncle Passage, NLWA was even able to send along some volunteers to help sand and prime the fences. This allowed residents to spend the following Sunday hosting a fun community paint day, banding together to finish four stunning artworks.  

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A man crouches down painting a blue pattern onto a wooden fence

Pleasant surprises – the joys of reclaimed paint

All the painters – professionals and amateurs alike – were pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the reclaimed paint, and were glad at the opportunity to make their project more sustainable by using a recycled material. The mural artists at Dugdale all said they were hoping to use reclaimed paint again in future artworks; Chikaora Obiora even said she’d kept the blue paint she used in her mural to reuse in other pieces!

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Four people sit on chairs talking in front of a wall mural

The Tottenham residents were equally pleased to be able to put a sustainability twist on their project. Chloe Chandler and Rachel Gornall (residents and organisers of Friends of Hartington Park & Carbuncle Passage) said: “We are so grateful to NLWA for giving us this opportunity to use reclaimed paint to brighten Carbuncle Passage. The fact we have been able to utilise good paint that might have otherwise been thrown away is the cherry on the cake!”

Stunning results 

The results of NLWA’s art collaborations speak for themselves – the paintings are truly stunning. 

It’s been a triumph of teamwork – by working closely with the community we’ve been able to support the creation of lasting artworks that not only will bring joy to residents but highlight an underused recyclable material. As NLWA Chair Councillor Clyde Loakes said: "It’s rewarding to be able to support projects that will bring a lot of joy to local residents, as well as promoting waste reduction and upcycling.”

Browse pictures of the beautiful finished works at the top of this page. To see more pictures and to find out more about how you can use reclaimed paint for your next project, visit our webpage on paint reuse. 

 

Published
2 May 2025

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