Meet the friends who have saved more than four million litres of paint from landfill by rescuing used tins, refilling and remixing it to give it a new lease of life. Cat Hyde, 43, and Kate Moree, 54, set up social enterprise Seagulls in 2004 and collect around 300 tonnes of paint a year from landfill. In a bid to be environmentally friendly, the pair decided to set up a business making money out of reusing waste. After setting their sights on paint they started collecting half-used tins from landfill and paint banks in their hometown of Leeds, Yorkshire. The team of staff - which has now grown to 14 members - then works to sort the good and bad paint and re-blend what they can. They then sell on the paint at an affordable price and mix up particular colours on request of customers. Cat, co-founder of Seagulls, said: “We hadn’t heard of anyone re-cycling paint before, and we were passionate about looking after the environment. “We’re able to work with the council to collect all the waste paint in Leeds and recycle as much of it as we can. “It’s very labour intensive to scrap all the paint tins and re-blend colours but we love it. “We have lots of volunteers and workers from all different backgrounds. “In the last 18 years we have diverted over four million litres of paint which would have caused 11.4million tonnes of carbon. “To offset all that we would have needed to plant 68 million trees.” Cat and Kate set up Seagulls after both having a passion for social justice and the environment. “We had the passion and drive to make a difference,” Cat said. “We wanted to make money from reusing a waste material. “A friend mentioned paint, so we thought why not?” The friends set up Seagulls in 2004 and have now grown the company to 14 staff members and 10 volunteers.
