News
Trash
Talk
By Brian Shedlarski
Hello everyone! Now that 2003 is history and we are
looking over the numbers I can tell you that our trash
and recycling amounts were up in most areas. We sent
2580.66 tons of trash to Regional Waste to be incinerated
in 2003. That's an 8.1% increase over last year, but
it's not just the trash numbers that are up. #2 Colored
Plastic saw a recycling increase of 79.33% and #2
Natural plastic jumped 50.26%. Although those were
by no means the largest of the increases, metal recycling
jumped an astonishing 111.12%! We thank you for your
commitment to recycling and look forward to an even
bigger increase next year!
The state of Maine has set a goal to recycle 50% of
the municipal solid waste generated. Gray has met
that goal, but many communities have not. What is
being done to help residents and businesses cut down
on the amount of waste entering the waste stream?
On March 18th the State Planning Office and The Maine
D.E.P., Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management,
in cooperation with the Dept. of Agriculture will
host a one-day symposium at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.
The topic "Food Waste", and it will be the
first time the state has dedicated resources to encourage
large-scale food waste producers to consider composting.
The state estimates that food waste makes up over
10% or 180,000 tons of the waste stream that is currently
land filled or incinerated. F.M.I. go to www.state.me.us/spo/recycle
or call the Maine State Planning Office at (207) 287-9074.
On February 5, 2004 The State of Maine, Georgia Pacific,
and Casella Waste Systems closed on the West Old Town
Landfill Transaction. There will be no change to the
landfill until the DEP grants a permit amendment that
allows Cassella to take wastes other than those produced
by Georgia Pacific and to expand the waste capacity
from 3 million to 10 million cubic yards. When this
occurs, the state will have an additional secure disposal
alternative with stable pricing.
In addition, Cassella has also agreed to develop facilities
that would and greatly expand recycling opportunities
for construction and demolition debris, glass and
electronic products. Source- Press release "http://www.state.me.us/spo/recycle/pressrelease02052004.php"
February 5, 2004.
Hopefully, in the near future the State as a whole
will reach its recycling goals. I know that the residents
of Gray are doing their part and we will continue
with alternative methods of disposal that will hopefully
keep the majority of our trash out of the waste stream.
We welcome your questions or comments! Feel free to
join us at our monthly meeting on the second Wednesday
of every month, or send your ideas or comments to
the Gray Solid Waste & Recycling Committee care
of pthoits2@maine.rr.com or call Solid Waste Director
Randy Cookson at 657-2343.
-Quick Fact- The ten states that have a bottle
bill recycle more tons of containers than the other
40 states combined!
