Odourless Mineral Spirits can be used as a medium in the process of painting as well as for cleaning brushes and other equipment. These products must not be used directly on the skin or clothing for cleaning up.

“Turpenoid Natural®,” which comes in a green container, is a brush cleaner and not useful as a painting medium. “Turpenoid Natural®” should not be used as a hand cleaner nor used to clean paint off clothes while you are wearing the clothes.

You can recycle paint thinner at the end of your painting session, wash your brushes in your paint thinner bucket or brush washer and dry them with a paper towel. Please make sure to seal your container after use. Dirty paint thinner should be changed regularly after each painting session.

Note: Clean, odourless paint thinner is mandatory in the studio, where 20 people stand in a room.

Please don't clean your hands with paint thinner. It will go right through your skin; this is what it is designed to do. You can use baby wipes. Always use gloves when manipulating paint thinner, like in the recycling process.

Procedure | Recycling

You will need gloves, a paper towel and a recycling storage container. Wear gloves during the procedure.

Please keep your paint thinner in a sealed container or brush washer, depending on the size of the brushes used and the painting location.

Recycling Option 1: When pouring thinner directly into the container. Close your paint-thinner container tightly and shake the liquid inside to remix the paint-thinner with the pigment that has already started to sediment at the bottom. Place the funnel and pour the contents from the paint-thinner container into the “recycling” storage container. (Please label the container for safety precautions.)

With a bit of soap and water, you can wash the container and dry it with a clean paper towel. Make sure the container is thoroughly dry. Pour clean paint thinner into your dry clean container for your next session.

Recycling Option 2: In the paint thinner bucket, you can insert a Ziplock bag and fold it over the side of the container, then pour clean paint thinner into your dry clean Ziplock bag inside the container. Keep the seal cover tight on the bucket; it will keep it thinner from evaporating and accidental spills.

Pour paint thinner from the bucket at the end of the painting session into the second recycling storage container for recycling purposes only. Take a bag from the thinner bucket and carefully tip the bag over the recycling storage bucket and change your Ziplock bag into your clean paint thinner bucket.

The paint particles in the recycling storage container will settle at the bottom. After a few days to a week, the paint thinner in the “recycling” container will have settled. The heavy pigment settled at the bottom and the clear paint thinner is at the top. It should have the colour of green tea with no particles in suspension or cloudy residue. Then gently pour the top clear portion into your clean Ziplock-inserted bag in the bucket for reuse—waste, not whatnot.

You can empty the dirty paint thinner several times until the recycling storage container is almost full and let it sit for a week before recycling the clear top thinner once the container is full of gunk and cannot get any clean thinner out of it.

Bring your dirty Storage Paint Thinner container to the recycling centre in your local area or the curbside pick up for hazardous material (if available).andnbsp; Follow local regulations for hazardous household materials like the oil from your car or other comparable chemicals.