Costs cause Hermon to end underused program

Every week, Harold Mailman of Hermon washes out his cans, jars and jugs, bales his newspapers, and drives a dozen miles to deposit his recyclables at the Bangor Recycling Center.

“It’s a habit that one develops,” Mailman said, recalling his parents’ patriotic recycling of metal during the World War II. “It’s not that hard to do, I just have to go out of my way a little bit,” he said.

In June Hermon decided to shut down its recycling program, because it became too expensive for the small town where only a fraction of the population had Mailman’s zeal for recycling.

“The hauling was killing us,” then-Town Manager Steve Tuckerman said at the time.

Hermon is now one of about a dozen Maine communities that offer no recycling service to their residents.

“The small towns – they don’t have the money or the volume of materials to effectively recycle,” said George MacDonald of the State Planing Office.

During the 1980s, Hermon offered curbside pickup of recyclables, but dropped the program in the mid-1990s, when costs escalated to more than $10,000. In its place, Hermon installed collection bins behind the municipal building, which is located a couple of miles from the transfer station.

Donna Pulver was a regular visitor to Hermon’s recycling bins, but the inconvenience of driving her recyclables to Bangor during working hours has been a barrier, she said.

“I’m disappointed. It’s really sad to have so much go to the landfill,” said Pulver, who lives “in the shadow” of the towering Pine Tree Landfill, across I-95 in Hampden.

By shutting down the recycling bin program, the town was able to cut $5,600 from its municipal budget for 2003 – a small figure with a big impact for this town of about 4,400 people.

“Our budgets are going up constantly, year-in and year-out, placing burdens on our property tax,” said Clint Deschene, who took over as Hermon town manager in July.

“You have must-do budgets – schools, roads – things you can’t cut,” he said.

Because recycling isn’t viewed as an absolute necessity, it was an easy target when town leaders went searching for budget cuts, the town manager said.

Mailman tells a different story.

“To me, it’s the same as the local roads. It’s a necessary expense,” he said. “If the public would just think of the future…”

But Mailman’s view is rare. Town officials estimate the number of people who used Hermon’s recycling bins topped 200 per month, and only about a half-dozen residents have called to complain, Deschene said.

“The demand really isn’t there. Not enough people are recycling,” the town manager said.

Hermon hasn’t exactly been a leader in the recycling movement.

The State Planning Office reported that the community recycled 155 tons of waste in 2001 – about 23 percent of its solid waste. The state average is closer to 40 percent. Over the past six years, the town’s recycling rate had been on a decline.

Deschene hopes to build new interest in recycling by installing convenient bins at the town’s transfer station, where residents already bring bulk waste. By combining the two services and limiting the hours of operation, he hopes to save enough money to convince townspeople that the expense is worthwhile.

“For right now, we’re just hoping we can get something up and running again,” he said. “We’re doing our best.”