AUGUSTA — Speaking over a television hookup that linked a half dozen towns and cities, Mainers on Thursday critiqued the state’s trash-management plan, calling some portions contradictory and others technically flawed.

The hearing linked communities from as far away as Fort Kent, to Augusta where Maine’s 1-year-old waste management agency answered questions and took comments from municipal and business officials and residents.

The agency is considering a plan to manage the 880,000 tons of rubbish generated in the state annually through a combined strategy of eliminating unnecessary packaging, recycling, composting, incineration and landfills.

The plan is to help Maine achieve a 25 percent reduction in trash volume by 1992 and 50 percent by 1994.

But John Dieffenbacher, associate director of the Maine People’s Alliance, said the blueprint creates a fundamental conflict by promoting both recycling and incineration, which compete for the same raw material.

Dieffenbacher, whose public-interest group follows toxics issues closely, spoke from Augusta.

Nancy Oden, an environmentalist who has declared her candidacy for governor under the banner of the unofficial “Common Sense” party, had a suggestion for solving the dilemma: “Kill the incinerators.” Oden, whose efforts helped defeat plans for an incinerator-ash landfill in Washington County, spoke from Machias.

The paper industry also is concerned about what it sees as a contradiction in the plan, David Bishop, environmental manager for Fraser Paper Ltd., said from Fort Kent.

The report calls for increased use of recycled paper as a raw material at the mills, but at the same time says mills should reduce the volume of sludge they generate, said Bishop.

However, the companies generate more sludge when they recycle as they remove ink from paper being reprocessed, he said.

Denise Lord, the Maine Waste Management Agency’s planning director, said she was aware of the dilemma, adding that it is “definitely something we will re-think.”

Presque Isle officials came to Augusta to personally tell waste agency Director Sherry Huber that they object to a suggestion that the town landfill be expanded for regional use.

City officials said they consider the landfill to be city property and that other towns should build a regional facility of their own if one is needed.

The report projects that recycling revenue and declining trash-disposal costs will save Maine communities $6 million a year by 1992 and more than twice that much by 1994.

The 117-page plan estimates that achieving the 25 percent reduction in trash volume by 1992 would cost $11.5 million, but that expense would be more than offset by $2.2 million in revenue from the sale of recycled materials and $15.3 million in avoided costs of trash disposal.

Similarly, reaching the 50 percent reduction envisioned by 1994 would cost an estimated $25.3 million to implement. However, communities would receive $4.9 million in recycling revenues and could count on $33.6 million in disposal savings, the plan says.

Lord warned that the estimates are only rough, but said they “give an idea of the magnitude of the savings” that are possible.

Mainers produce more than 880,000 tons of municipal solid waste per year, according to a 1988 estimate. The figure does not include used appliances, tires and certain other wastes.