Ordinarily when we think about sprucing up our living quarters, a touch of paint is one of the first things that springs to mind. When we go out to buy the paint, we are usually only thinking colour and cost, so we end up coming back home with a bucket or two of conventional oil paint. Few of us ever stop to think of the adverse effects our paint job could be having on our dear planet. For starters, consider the greenhouse gases emitted by most of these paints. Furthermore, they usually contain aerial pollutants in the form of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which have been found to also be carcinogenic.

For the sake of the environment, and your own health, it would therefore be advisable for you to change your paints and choose environmentally friendly paints the next time you decide to give your house a facelift. These ‘green’ paints will usually contain no VOCs and no oils. Apart from emitting almost no harmful gases into the atmosphere as a result, these paints have been proven to be more durable than ordinary paints. This means less need for fresh coats, thus less harm to the environment.