At Bufo Paint, we support business who reflect our own morals and goals. We believe earth should be treated with respect and kindness wherever possible. For this reason and many more, we have loved and used Wattyl for 25+ years!
Interested in a new colour for your home? Wattyl has you covered
As a business Bufo Paint, and as individuals, we believe that we must respect our mother earth to keep the world turning, and to do so we must use sustainable, quality products.
Sustainability can be achieved in many different ways, such as prioritising using re-useable drop sheets, correctly washing painting accessories to reduce overall waste, using paper instead of plastic where possible.
Paint is ubiquitous in everyone’s lives, your personal homes and cars are covered in paint, your shopping centers, churches, workplaces, swimming pools and pretty much anywhere you can think of, has paint! So, imagine if every painting business used sustainable practices right down to their paintbrushes, how much waste could be saved?
Bufo Paints Sustainable Practices
Have you ever taken a load to the dump, carefully sorting your materials—cardboard, hard plastic, metal, paint—and wondered what happens to them afterward? Here’s a reality: most of these materials often end up in the same place. This hard truth is disappointing and insufficient for protecting our environment. So, as a business we have to find creative ways to curb the waste!
As painters, we accumulate hundreds of empty plastic drums. Instead of relying on waste systems that may not work effectively, we take responsibility and recycle them ourselves. How?
We frequently give away our drums to the creative community - artists, gardeners and handymen love to re-use our drums!
We keep some drums for easy storage and transportation of our tools.
We reuse empty paint drums to wash our tools instead of buying plastic washout stations. Each job gets its own drum to wash our tools into. When full, we add a chemical called flocculent (used in pools to remove algae) to separate paint solids from water. After the water evaporates, we get a hard paint clump that is safe to throw in a regular bin. This saves our clients gardens, the dump from unwanted paint, unnecessary water use and a whole lot of plastic!
Typically, painters use reusable canvas drop sheets to protect clients’ floors. However, there are some tricky parts to cover that drop sheets are not adequate for (around toilets and high traffic areas). Instead of using small plastic drop sheets or buying more canvas drop sheets when we have multiple large areas to cover, we got creative! At times we will use brown paper, but mostly we use recycled cardboard. We ask our paint suppliers and save our own cardboard but when that runs out? … We aren’t ashamed to say that we dumpster dive in our local recycling dumpsters! How it works: we see an overflowing cardboard bin; we grab the cardboard and give it one more life before it is thrown away! Once we have used these carboard pieces to the max we throw them away (carboard that has paint on it can’t be recycled).
Our suppliers: we support Wattyl for their integrity and green thinking (read more below). Our wallpaper company Bufo Paper actively supports and researches all suppliers that we recommend. We prefer to use Australian suppliers who are committed to sustainability.
Wattyl is supporting our dream of making painting sustainable by their own sustainable practices!
Not only does Wattyl have amazing employees, who we call friends, products that have never let us down, but they also stand out in the industry through several key qualities:
The Hempel Foundation supports major global initiatives including the regeneration of 3.9 million hectares across 17 landscapes in 9 countries and has donated over AUD 150 million to philanthropic projects from 2021 to 2024. It also supports over 2.6 million hectares of Key Biodiversity Areas and has positively impacted more than 1.25 million children through education projects since 2010.
Innovative Products
Wattyl uses Wattyl Eco Tinters, Wattyl are the only paint supplier with Ultra Low tinters (1 gm/L). This means that even after tinting, Wattyl paints still meet low VOC (volatile organic compound) standards—unlike other paint manufacturers whose VOC levels increase significantly after tinting.
As part of the Hempel Group, owned by The Hempel Foundation, Wattyl benefits from a strong philanthropic and environmental focus.
The Hempel Foundation is dedicated to making a difference and a committed philanthropist within the fields of education, sustainable coatings technology, sustaining biodiversity and realising great initiatives that bring about positive change.
Global Responsibility
As a signatory to the UN Global Compact agreement, Wattyl is committed to upholding the UN Global Compact’s ten fundamental principles within the areas of human rights, labour rights, the environment and anti-corruption principles as part of our core operations.
Wattyl is also proudly a member or accredited by:
Green Building Council of Australia
ECNZ
GECA
APAS
APMF
NATA
ISO
These recognitions highlight Wattyl’s dedication not only to environmental responsibility but also to ethical practices and product performance.
Wattyl combines advanced, environmentally responsible technology with strong global initiatives, offering a trustworthy and sustainable choice for both residential and commercial paint projects.
Environmental Leadership
Wattyl is the only major paint manufacturer accredited by both GECA (Good Environmental Choice Australia) and ECNZ (Environmental Choice New Zealand), with third-party certifications for low VOCs, ethical work practices, and sustainability
Aaron and Peanut win the painters prize from Wattyl! There are always goodies when we visit our local Wattyl store, whether its chocolates, free coffee, or a surprise prize!