Residents of Maine Town Choose Mandatory Recycling

Voters in Hollis, Maine, opted for curbside trash collection and mandatory recycling when they went to the polls this November, with 55 percent of residents selecting the option over curbside trash collection with voluntary recycling or a pay-per-bag option in combination with voluntary recycling.

“Communities pay by the ton to dispose of their municipal solid waste, so when the weight of recyclable material is removed from the waste stream, the cost goes down,” Linda Boudreau, South Portland City Councilor and chair of Ecomaine says. Ecomaine is a nonprofit, municipally owned solid waste disposal organization serving 28 southern Maine communities. “And statistics have repeatedly shown that the easier it is for residents to recycle, the more material they will recycle. Taking recyclables to the end of your own driveway is obviously more convenient than making a special trip to the transfer station,” she adds.

According to Bob Fournier, chairman of the Hollis Recycling Committee, adopting the combination of curbside trash and recycling pickup is projected to lower the cost per ton of trash disposal at Ecomaine once the town reaches the threshold recycling rate of 30 percent. The additional cost per household is estimated at $15 per year. The savings resulting from eliminating the use of “silver bullet” recycling containers at the transfer station is estimated to be $20,900.

The town of Scarborough will add curbside recycling to its services May 1, 2007, Town Manager Ron Owens says. “That date was selected because it’s the same day that Ecomaine will open its new, single-stream recycling facility.” Ecomaine’s $3.7 million investment will allow towns to deliver all their recyclables together, without taking the time to separate materials into categories. “The faster collection time lowers the cost of labor and reduces idling time,” he says. “In addition, the ability to mix all recyclables together means we can compact the materials as we collect them and that translates into fewer trips for each truck.” 

Ecomaine’s 21 owner-communities are Bridgton, Cape Elizabeth, Casco, Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Gorham, Gray, Harrison, Hollis, Limington, Lyman, North Yarmouth, Ogunquit, Portland, Pownal, Scarborough, South Portland, Waterboro, Windham and Yarmouth.