PITTSFIELD – Built into a corner of the Maine Waste Facility is a large freezer, not unlike one found in large restaurants. Yellow and gray containers are stacked inside.

These are the body parts, the chemotherapy residuals and the infectious waste that cannot be incinerated in Maine.

The tubs are stored in the freezer, and when it is filled – about every two to three weeks – they are shipped to Haverhill, Mass., to National Waste Management.

The Massachusetts facility is merely a transfer station, providing repacking and reshipping services for hospitals, labs and nursing homes all over New England, Bob Deslauries, NWM president, said.

This special waste averages 8.6 percent of the total medical waste volume in Maine, compared to the national average of 5 percent.

Because of increasingly stringent incinerator regulations, it is difficult to find sites for such facilities.

“There are none left in New Hampshire, none in Vermont, only one transfer station in Connecticut, two in Massachusetts and a processing facility in Rhode Island,” Deslauries said.

MWF’s medical waste leaves Massachusetts for its final destination: a $35 million incinerator in Matthews, N.C.

“It is absurd to have to drive trash that far to get rid of it,” Deslauries said.