Central Aroostook recycling plans expanding

PRESQUE ISLE — Efforts to recycle waste products in central Aroostook will serve as a key forum of discussion for area officials in the coming weeks.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, July 12, at the Caribou City Hall council chambers, the board of directors of the Tri-Community Recycling and Sanitary Landfill is scheduled to meet with local waste haulers serving the landfill.

The Presque Isle City Council will review a “blue bag” and a glass recycling program at 7 p.m. Monday, July 9, during a regular meeting. Presenting the “blue bag” program will be Brent Haney, manager of solid-waste issues for First Brands Corp. of Danbury, Conn., manufacturers of garbage bags.

According to Kenneth Hensler, Tri-Community Landfill director, the July 12 meeting will be an informal session to solicit opinions from area haulers regarding route-collection proposals for certain recyclable materials.

“We are still proposing voluntary recycling,” said Hensler. “I feel the public deserves an opportunity to show us what they can do on a voluntary basis with the use of a good education program. If not successful, we may have to go to mandatory recycling.”

The director said Tri-Community currently recycles less than 5 percent of its paper waste.

Hensler said the board will apply for a second round of capital investment grants for recycling through the Maine Waste Management Agency by its August deadline. The amount to be requested in the grant will depend on what the haulers would like to do, according to Hensler.

The Presque Isle landfill received $300,000 in the first round of grant funding through the MWMA. Presque Isle officials were notified that they had received the grant on April 2, according to Dana Fowler, waste management director for Presque Isle.

Fowler said the city’s was one of about 100 applications presented to the waste-management agency in February. Landfills throughout the state competed for $5 million of grant money, with about $26 million requested from state applicants.

The city of Presque Isle was required to match the grant with $100,000 in locally raised funds. The funds will allow the city to build a larger recycling facility, with an improved design, and higher-capacity equipment, the Presque Isle director said.

Fowler said that city officials have reviewed six sites for construction of a new recycling facility in the industrial park area. Engineering proposals will be requested within two weeks with a firm to be selected to complete a site-selection study. Construction of the new center is scheduled to start in late September and be completed by mid-December, with everything in place at the new facility by Jan. 1.

The current Presque Isle recycling facility on Airport Drive has reached its capacity to handle paper and cardboard. The products are shipped to facilities in New Brunswick, Quebec and central Maine. About 10 percent of waste from area communities is recycled at the facility, Fowler said.

A new market in Grand Falls, New Brunswick for glass products has resulted in the initiation of glass collection efforts at the city’s transfer station. By July 23, the city’s recycling facility in the industrial park also will serve as a collection site for glass. The facility will be open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon, Fowler said.

Individuals are encouraged to rinse and remove caps from any glass containers delivered to the facility for recycling. Items not accepted are ceramics, light bulbs and Pyrex-type materials. Only washed food containers such as peanut butter jars, and beverage containers will be accepted, said Fowler.

Among the ideas considered by Presque Isle officials will be the use of a blue-bag program, to be presented by Haney.

Haney said Thursday that consumer research using the blue-bag program indicated that the bags proved to be the most convenient, most affordable and efficient way to dispose of trash and recyclables. Bags for the program are sold through regular retail stores, said the company spokesman.

“The most important point about the program is that the bags themselves can be recycled,” said Haney. “The whole concept of recycling hinges on that aspect of it.”

Haney said that programs using the blue bags have existed in Canada and the United States for more than one year. His company has initiated 12 demonstration programs using the bags in curbside recycling programs, with the city of Pittsburgh making use of the bags mandatory.

Haney plans to present statistics and to encourage local officials to become part of a demonstration project, with results of the program to be presented to city officials for review.