By Brooks Payette
Staff Writer
Ecomaine officially started up its new recycling center in Portland last week, a single sort system that ecomaine General Manager Kevin Roche said will revolutionize the way Maine recycles. The plant is just the third of its kind in the New England region and Roche said the plant hopes to expand on the 28 communities already a part of ecomaine.
     Scarborough began service with the facility on May 1. They are one of the first towns in Maine to go to an automated single stream, curbside recycling program.
The $3.7 million plant, which Roche called an investment in the community, held an open house tour on May 3, at the new plant on Blueberry Road. The new system allows for residents to put all their recyclables into one container and for municipalities to deliver the recyclables mixed before they are sorted at the plant. Roche said the simplicity of it should expand participation throughout Maine and help communities save money.
“We are happy to work with as many communities that want to work with us,” said Roche. “We need your material. We welcome new communities to join our effort.”
Roche said that “single sort” recycling has a handful of benefits for residents and municipalities and can benefit a city or town of any size. He said it eliminates clutter in homes by not having to use two or more recycling containers. He said some people do not have garages or the proper storage area for all the containers. With the curbside pick-up program, residents would have one container for trash and one container for all recyclables. Ecomaine claims that curbside pickup has increased recycling by an average of 67 percent in six curbside pick-up communities. Scarborough officials predicted the town’s recycling rate to double from 20 percent to 40 percent.
With all the sorting done at the Portland plan, most by machine and some manually, it also eliminates for curbside sorting by truck operators. Roche said cities and towns were looking at a way to speed up the collection process and eliminate time spent idling by municipal vehicles. It is expected to be a cost and time saver for participating communities.
South Portland city councilor and ecomaine board member Linda Boudreau agreed with that expectation.
“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,” she said. “Statistics have repeatedly shown that the easier it is for residents to recycle, the more they will recycle. It’s just human nature. Taking recyclables to the end of your driveway is obviously more convenient than making a special trip to the transfer station.”
Beginning in January of 2008, Saco will be using the “single sort” system and send its recyclables to ecomaine via curbside pick up. Saco is currently under contract for its recyclables with Corcoran Environmental until the end of the year. The city signed a 20-year contract with ecomaine to take its solid waste and recyclables.
Saco City Councilor Eric Cote, an avid conservationist, said it is a good decision made by the city earlier this year. He said the contract with ecomaine is very understandable, and that was not the case with Maine Energy Recovery Company in Biddeford where saco was previously sending their items.
“Ecomaine has a very good reputation,” Cote said. “The communities we talked to about their experiences with ecomaine all had positive things to say. What I like the most about ecomaine is they are focused on what’s best for the future of waste management.”
Cote said the city will be charged $70.50 per ton of waste for the first year and there is no limit on the amount of waste that the city delivers to the waste plant. Ecomaine will take on all Saco’s recyclables for free.
Cote, who suggested the city add $13,500 to a recycling education line in the budget last week, said that participation from the residents could save a lot of money. Cote said about 75 percent of waste in people’s homes is recyclable, yet much of that is thrown away. If residents comply and recycle all that can be, the city will be shipping less waste and more recyclable. Since ecomaine charges for waste and not recyclables, it could result in a large savings for the city.
“The goal is to move a lot more of trash to recycling,” said Cote. “Every ton we send as recyclables and not trash is $70.50 the city saves.”
The single sort system has also expanded the number of items that can be recycled. Nearly 75 percent (by weight) of the product coming into the plant is fiber, or paper products. Those paper products that can be recycled include cardboard, newspaper, office paper, junk mail, show boxes, cereal boxes, magazines, catalogs, gift wrap, shopping bags, aseptic milk and juice cartons, and books.
Under the new system, all seven types of number plastics are recyclable. In the past, only no. one and no. two were acceptable. In addition to the plastic, foil, cans, pots and pans, empty aerosol cans, and empty bottles and jars are accepted. That includes any color glass.
Items not recycled by the plant include light bulbs, hypodermic needles, sharp objects, food, toys, Styrofoam packing and peanuts, food bags, potato chip bags, trash, and bubble wrap.
    Despite the positives, Cote said it is still up in the air of how effective single stream recycling is. He said that because everything is mixed together, there is a level of contamination. Cote said he is anxious to see how the program works in Scarborough during the next few months before Saco implements it the first of the year. Both Scarborough and South Portland were the first two towns to take advantage of curbside single sort recycling last week. Cote estimated that Saco recycles about 18,000 tons a year with 15,500 of that being paper products.
Roche said the plant, under its current schedule, is capable of recycling 25,000 tons of material a year. He added that the plant can easily expand that number by expanding its hours. Currently, the plant runs just 10 hours a day and does not run on the weekends at all.
Steve Simard, Ecomaine single sort recycling facility manager, said the plant is capable of sorting out and packing 18 tons of paper per hour and about another two tons of other materials, such as bottles, cans, and other materials. Simard said about 75 percent of the material recycled, by weight, is paper product.
Roche said that the new single sort system was a good way to reach out to people, municipalities, and businesses that are not currently recycling. He said the goal of ecomaine is to reach 50 percent of all waste coming in as recycled in order to take more waste away from going to landfills.
Roche said towns can also compact the recyclable material before shipping it to the plant. He said a pilot program was run in Lyman, where the town cut down the yearly load shipment of 81 annually to just 24. That helped the town save approximately $7,125 a year.
Roche said another unique thing about ecomaine is that the entire recycling process stays in Maine. All of their recycled paper product is shipped to Maine companies, including Katahdin Paper in Millinocket and Huhtamaki in Waterville.
“We are committed to using Maine markets,” said Roche. “We believe it’s important to keep in Maine and complete the recycling loop here.”
Roche estimated the plant will make about $2 million in revenues and is currently operating with a $1.5 million budget. He said an increased volume will make the plant much more effective.
“We need volume,” said Roche. “The only way to cover costs is with volume.”
Once the material is delivered to the plant, the recyclables are loaded into a large bin. From there, cardboard is first separated by a machine and then a manual presort takes out phone books, trash, and plastics bags. Newspaper and mixed paper are then sorted from glass bottles and plastics by screens. A magnet also collects all cans to separate them.
The glass in the plant is crushed and run through a trammel to turn it into clean glass sand.
     Near the end of the process, the plant features a state-of-the-art optical infrared scanner that can detect number one type plastic. The other types of plastics are sorted manually.