By Dave Dyer

Staff Writer

Residents of the towns using ecomaine can look forward to recycling beyond the gratification of helping the environment. 

According to ecomaine Program Development Manager Missi Labbe, recycling with ecomaine can also help towns financially. 

“We charge towns a tipping fee of $88 per ton of trash brought here,” she said. “We do not charge a tipping fee for recyclable materials brought here. The more people use recyclable products, the more it saves the town money.” 

Ecomaine is a not-for-profit trash incineration plant located in Portland, which handles the garbage and recyclables from 21 municipalities, along with seven “associate” towns. 

Labbe said she started working at ecomaine in 2000.

“I originally started as a secretary,” she said. “After about three years, I moved on to recycling coordinator. I did that job for over two years before moving on to development manager. I’ve been a jack-of-all-trades kind of person here.”

Labbe said she was a member of the committee overlooking the installation of the single-stream machinery.

“The general manager and myself worked closely with the company installing the machinery. We wanted to make sure maintenance workers would be happy and the company installing the equipment just wanted it to work.”

Labbe said the single-stream recycling process began a year ago.

“It started on May 1 of last year,” she said. “Ecomaine is the only facility in the state with this kind of recycling system and one of only three in New England. Before our single-stream recycling system came along, we were able to recycle 3,000 tons of material per year. We now recycle 30,000 tons per year. It makes the process easier for residents because they can now put all of their recyclables into one container instead of sorting their recyclables. We still had 168,000 tons of waste incinerated last year, so I still think there is room to improve. The Environmental Protection Agency did a recent study and found that 60 percent of trash is recyclable.”

The recycling process begins with trucks bringing in the recyclable material to the ecomaine recycling building in Portland. The materials are dropped in one pile on a tipping floor, where a bucket loader pushes the recyclables into a drum feeder.

The drum feeder breaks apart bags of recyclables and spills the material onto a conveyor belt. Recyclables are taken from the conveyor belt to a cardboard separator, where star-shaped rubber rollers mounted on spinning shafts separate cardboard from the rest of the recyclables. The separated cardboard is moved to a separate conveyor belt, taking the cardboard to a storage bunker where it will be bailed.

The rest of the recyclables continue onto another conveyor belt to the pre-sort area, where workers pick out pieces of non-recyclable trash and small pieces of cardboard that fall through the separator. After being pre-sorted, recyclables go through a double-decker newspaper separation screen. Star shaped rubber rollers are once again used to separate paper, with the top screen used for newspaper and the bottom screen for mixed paper. The separated paper is then taken to storage bins to be bailed.

Plastics, metals and glass remain on the conveyor belt and pass through a spinning drum magnet that separates metals containing iron from other materials and taken to another storage bunker. The remaining items pass through a glass-breaking screen, where glass is processed into a fine, sand-like texture. Workers can handle the broken glass without the worry of sharp edges.

The remaining aluminum and plastics pass through an electric current with alternating electric fields to knock the aluminum off the conveyor belt into another storage bunker. Plastic materials are hand sorted by workers in the storage bunkers as the final stage of the separation process.

The entire sorting process takes three minutes and is controlled by one worker through a control panel.

Labbe said baled recyclables are sold to manufacturers.

“We sell the paper lots to Katahdin Paper in Millinocket,” Labbe said. “With the plastics, metals and glass, bid sheets are sent out to manufacturers and we send out the bales to the highest bidders.”

Labbe said prices of the bales of recyclables fluctuate at the beginning of each month. She said since the ecomaine is a not-for-profit organization, surplus revenue helps keep the tipping fees consistent.

“In the last fiscal year, we made $2.1 million with the recyclables,” Labbe said. “Various costs took away $1.2 million, meaning we had a $900,000 surplus. The board of directors decided to use the surplus money to make the tipping fee the same rate.”

Labbe said recyclable collection varies from town to town. Some use curbside pickup, involving a rear loading compactor truck, while others use silver bins referred to as “silver bullets,” where residents can separate recyclables into different compartments. 

Labbe said the law states employers of businesses with 15 or more employees must recycle cardboard and paper, however, she said not all businesses are aware.

“I was at the local [pharmacy] and I noticed they didn’t have recycling bins,” she said. “I carry papers in my car that state the law, so I go up to the manager and go ‘Did you know about this law?’ and they don’t. Within two weeks, they had recycling bins, so there is hope”

Labbe said she recycles at home in Hollis.

“Ecomaine comes to Hollis and we have curbside pickup. Recycling in Hollis has increased by 140 percent since the single-stream system began. I have a passion for recycling. You can’t be around all this trash at ecomaine and not get into it.” 

Labbe said the single-stream system has also saved municialities money through trucks used to pick up recyclables.

“We used to have a dual stream collection truck for curbside pick-up and drivers had to separate the recyclables into different compartments on the sort truck,” she said. “After two or three tons of materials, the truck would have to make a drop. We did a collection study with the city of Portland during a six-week period in 2005, using rear loading compactor trucks, where all the materials are put into the rear area of the truck. The results showed the rear compactor trucks were able to hold an average of eight tons of materials for one trip, more than two times the amount in the curbside sort truck. It also cut down the time it takes for route time and saved on fuel costs.” 

Labbe said she thinks towns using ecomaine feel comforted about where their trash goes.

“I think they appreciate us being on the cutting edge of waste disposal and recycling,” she said. “It’s a big benefit for that they have a reduced liability of where their waste is going.”

Labbe said ecomaine hosts an open house every year.

“Every October we have an open house here and have giveaways, displays, talks on how to handle materials. It’s a great opportunity to bring kids in and begin an education of recycling.”

Labbe said people who don’t recycle should begin to in small increments.

“If people can pick one item to recycle and do it and see how easy it is, they can then add another item to recycle and hopefully it can become habit. Doing nothing at all is a real shame,” she said.