Pilot Project Investigates Single-Stream Recycling in Rural Areas

Regional Waste Systems’ (RWS) Recycling Committee has executed a single-stream recycling pilot project in the town of Lyman, Maine, an RWS owner-community with a population of fewer than 4,000.

According to a press release from RWS, nationwide studies have already revealed that larger communities with curbside recycling have increased their recovery rates with the use of single-stream collections and processing technology. These studies also have shown an increase in collection and transportation efficiencies and cost reductions, which were borne out by a pilot project conducted by the city of Portland, Maine, last summer, RWS says. The six-week Portland trial identified a potential savings of 24 percent from improved collection efficiencies.

RWS was curious if rural residents, who have to bring their trash and recyclables to a transfer station, would also benefit from single-stream technology?

Beginning Dec. 13, 2005 through Jan. 10, 2006, people who arrived at the Lyman Transfer Station were instructed to throw all their recyclables into a single container, rather than into separate containers for plastic, paper and metal. All of the recyclables were thrown into one of the town’s compactors, and the trash was thrown into the other.

Linda Boudreau, RWS director and recycling committee chair, says that Lyman collected more than three times the usual recycling load before having to pay for transportation to the recycling facility in Portland. She credits this increase to the use of compaction, as the compacted loads weighed 8.23 tons on average, while the container loads averaged 2.53 tons each. Boudreau adds, “Therefore, there would be a reduction in the number of trips per year from 81 to 24 and, at a charge by haulers of $125 per trip, the town could potentially save $7,125 annually.”

A town with results similar to Lyman’s could recoup the cost of its compactor in approximately 18 months, according to RWS.

According to Shelley Dunn of RWS, the company as issued a Request for Proposal for single-stream technology, with bids due in mid-March. “The bids are intended to gather real costs so that the owner-communities of RWS can make a decision whether or not to go forward with it,” she says. “Because 15 of our 21 owner-communities have populations under 5,000, it was important to discover whether or not there were real benefits for them.”

Regional Waste Systems is a non-profit solid waste management company serving 27 cities and towns in Cumberland, Oxford, and York counties in Maine. It is governed by a 28-member board and is owned and controlled by 21 member municipalities.