If you spill paint or clean your painting tools in grass or lawns, will it kill or damage the luscious turf.  Well after 17 years of painting I would have said definitely no harm to your lawn will be done with water based interior and exterior paints but things have changed recently.  All other coating like oil, lacquer, and alcohol based products will do damage.  I have been practicing the cleaning of our paint tools in grass for 17 years with absolutely no ill effects. 

However, Sherwin Williams has now created a product call Emerald that has changed everything.  If you clean your tools or spill this paint coating in your lawn or grass it will definitely kill it.  I have questioned many SW employees about this issue and in every case they deny or claim any knowledge of this issue.  Even after bringing this issue to their attention a year ago you will still get the same denial of any issues.  I have posed this question on my social media platform and got many painters confirming this issue is true. 

This is the only know water based coating I am familiar with that will damage your lawn or grass but test at your own risk.  We continue to the same practices except now if we use Emerald coatings we do not clean our tools near any vegetation.  With that said, make sure you follow all environmental regulations for your local area when cleaning tools or disposing  of paint products.  In Idaho as of today it is not violating  any rules or regulations to clean your tools in the manner of fashion we do.  If you want to see how we clean a paint roller in 30 seconds, check out our video: https://youtu.be/O8WrzcjW8l0