By Zack Anchors     

Staff Writer

    There has recently been a lot of buzz about
“regionalization” as a way for municipalities to streamline the
efficiency and lower the costs of services provided for residents.
While several Cumberland County communities have formed the Metro
regional coalition to explore potential ways to share resources, the
state is requiring a shift to regional dispatch services and some
politicians are claiming regionalization is an essential step towards
relieving the state’s tax burden.

    Despite the recent emphasis, regionalization is not
a new idea, and some such partnerships have been serving local
communities for decades. One example is the thirty-year-old non-profit
corporation that receives the solid-waste of 28 southern Maine
communities—ecomaine, until recently known as Regional Waste Systems
(RWS).

    Along with the new name, chosen to emphasize the
organization’s focus on ecologically sound practices, ecomaine has
undergone a series of changes lately. Among them is the city of Saco’s
decision to become an associate member and begin sending its solid
waste to the facility next July and its recyclable materials next
December. Saco’s decision to join, said ecomaine President Kevin Roche,
is good news for all the member communities.

    “The more communities that are involved, the more
recyclable materials and waste there is,” he said. “Working regionally
instead of each community working on its own definitely has its
advantages.”

    The advantage to more waste and recyclable materials
for ecomaine is that it gives the organization greater leverage to
transform that waste and recyclable materials into a source of revenue.
There are two main ways that ecomaine does this: through selling the
energy it creates at its waste-to-energy plant and by selling
recyclable materials. In its 2006/2007-budget cycle ecomaine drew in
more than $1.9 million in revenues from recycling alone. This year
ecomaine saw an increase of 18 percent over in the amount of recyclable
materials collected from the previous year, which had broken a record
at 20,734 tons.

    Roche expects that figure to climb higher with the
opening of ecomaine’s new $3.7 million single-stream recycling
facility. With single-stream equipment, recyclable materials will not
need to be sorted until it reaches ecomaine’s facility, where new
equipment will separate out the items. Single-stream recycling is
expected to decrease the cost of collection by around 20 percent for
member communities, make recycling easier for residents and make curb
side pick up of recyclable material economically feasible for some
communities. As more communities switch over to curbside recycling
(Scarborough will be switching over to curbside recycling on May 1 to
coincide with the start-up of the new equipment), and Saco begins to
contribute its recyclables, Roche expects the amount or recyclable
material to climb further.

    “The equipment has been ordered and it’s expected to
arrive this week,” said Roche of the single-stream infrastructure. “It
will allow a system that’s more convenient and less costly.”

    Roche says one of the main advantages of
single-stream is that it will minimize the amount of idling trucks will
need to do when collecting recyclable materials. It will also allow
trucks to make far fewer trips to the recycling facility due to an
ability to mix materials together and compact them. This will mean
savings for municipalities, but the ease of single-stream recycling is
also expected to increase participation, meaning more materials for
ecomaine and increased revenue.

    “Certainly it’s going to increase revenues,” said
Roche. “We’re hoping the increase in revenues will pay off the capital
cost.”

    As ecomaine collects more recyclable materials it
gains leverage in the marketplace and a greater ability to maintain a
consistent source of revenue, said Roche. This year, the recycling
program generated a $600,000 surplus. Roche said ecomaine would also
welcome the recyclable materials of other communities that may want to
become associate members in the future.

    “The recycling facility has plenty of room– we’re really pushing that,” said Roche.

    Ecomaine’s waste-to-energy facility has also been
bringing in more revenues than in previous years. Last year, ecomaine
renegotiated it’s contract for the sale of electricity and increased
it’s revenue from the previous budget cycle by 68 percent. From the
168,435 tons of trash it burned in its facility, ecomaine was able to
produce enough electricity to power 15,000 homes, which it sold for
$5.3 million. The current contract will be renegotiated in January of
2008.

    Because the waste-to-energy plant must operate 24
hours a day in order to maximize efficiency, ecomaine needs to have a
steady flow of waste to feed it. Often, during times when waste
collection is low, ecomaine relies on the spot-market—outside sources
of waste that pay lower tipping fees. The increase in waste that will
come with Saco joining ecomaine will help to provide more consistency
and predictability, said Shelly Dunn, ecomaine communications
specialist.

“When we get into low volume periods we offer for others to bring trash
in,” said Dunn. “This will reduce the amount of times we depend on the
spot-market.”

    Out of ecomaine’s $25 million dollar 2005/2006
budget more than $9 million was devoted to paying off around $55
million in debt. Roche said this debt was incurred through the
construction of ecomaine facilities and other capital projects. Last
year ecomaine saved more than two million dollars by refinancing their
existing debt with lower interest rates. Under the current debt
schedule, ecomaine’s debt service will be as low as $300,000 in 2013.
But Roche says that more improvements, and more debt, are likely to be
needed at some point.

    “We certainly want to continue to make improvements
and to make our facilities better,” he said. “It’s not like in 2012
there will never be another debt payment again.”