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AUGUSTA – The state plans to make a renewed push to get Mainers to recycle their trash after a report showed solid waste generation has grown while recycling efforts have stalled.
The new report by the State Planning Office shows recycling efforts have stalled across Maine in the past two years, with 40 percent of all solid waste recycled in 1999, down from 42 percent in 1997.
Maine is still among the top states for recycling, but it missed its goal of recycling 50 percent of municipal solid waste by 2000. For now, the state has ample landfill space for the next 20 years as long as recycling continues and existing landfills stay open.
But the state wants to boost recycling efforts to save money on costly new landfills in the future. The state and many communities plan to sponsor new recycling campaigns, as yet undefined, to emphasize the importance and cost-effectiveness of reusing and recycling waste.
“Maine people need to be looking down the road,” said George McDonald, recycling director for the State Planning Office. “Twenty years in the future seems like a long time away, but if we had to site a landfill it would take seven to 10 years to get approvals to begin operation.”
Solid waste generation continues to increase in Maine, from 1.6 million tons in 1997 to 1.7 million tons in 1999. Maine incinerated 32 percent of its waste in 1999, while 22.2 percent went to landfills, 40 percent was recycled and 5.4 percent was exported to other states.
Some towns have tougher regulations surrounding recycling. In Oxford, for example, residents must recycle or pay the town $5 a bag to take their trash. Consequently, Oxford’s recycling rate was nearly 80 percent in 1999. In Auburn, where recycling has been less successful (25.7 percent in 1999), curbside recycling went into effect last August.
Sid Hazelton, assistant director of pubic works, opposes mandatory recycling. “I’d rather make it something that through education, people want to do and are not forced to do,” he said. “That makes the program run better.”
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