What happens to the stuff Gorham residents put into their purple bins and watch being thrown into the big, grey truck? Does most of it end up in a landfill? “No,” says Matt Grondin, Ecomaine’s Communication Director, “only about 11% is not recycled.” It is delivered to Ecomaine’s facility off Outer Congress St. where it is sorted, squashed, baled, and sent off to be turned into something new.
What can be recycled is determined largely by what can be sold. Right now, 75% of what Ecomaine collects from Gorham and surrounding communities is paper and cardboard, much of which is trucked to Quebec. This includes magazines, wrapping paper, milk cartons, and pizza boxes. “Those pizza boxes don’t have to be perfectly clean,” Grondin said, “but if they are too goopy, just recycle the top.”
Photo credit: Kathy CorbettThe sorting process begins after the collected items are delivered to Ecomaine.
Books, both hardback and paperbacks books can be recycled, but an alternative to having books pulped is to donate them to Baxter Memorial Library or North Gorham Public Library for their book sales.
Ecomaine takes everything marked with recycling numbers 1-7, except styrofoam #6. Along with the paper, it all goes onto the waste-stream conveyer belt and is sorted by hand and by machine. This includes the clam shell containers that berries come in as long as they have recycling numbers. The plastic flower pots from the garden center are okay too. In fact, hard or stiff plastic that is a container qualifies, but not potato chip packages, flexible paper bags, or the plastic mailers used by Amazon and LL Bean.
Grondin said, “Rinse out your cans, but you don’t need to wash them.” After they are squashed and sent off, they are smelted down and the residue is burned off. Along with cans, Ecomaine takes foil, pots and pans, and empty aerosol cans. If there is still liquid in an aerosol can, it can start a fire on the conveyer. “So, make sure they are empty and don’t give us fabric either,” Grondin said. “If it gets into the stream, it can start a fire or clog up the system.”
Instead of going into the recycling bin, used clothing can go to Goodwill or to a resell-it shop. Clothing too worn to wear and other fabric can be sent to textile recycling companies that can be found online.
Ecomaine accepts clear, green and brown bottles, but there is no market for them as containers. So, they are crushed into gravel and stored at the landfill until they can be sold for roads and drains.
Photo credit: Kathy CorbettSorted bales of smashed plastic containers, plastic milk jugs, aluminum cans, and other metals will be trucked from the facility to be processed into new products.
What happens to the 11% of stuff that is not recyclable? Ecomaine burns trash at its waste-to-energy plant down the hill from the recycling facility. “We burn about 175,00 tons of solid waste a year which generates 100,000 megawatt hours of electricity while controlling for pollution,” Grondin said. Some of that trash is the garbage collected from Gorham residents and delivered by contractor to the burn plant. The town closed its transfer station on Huston Road when it joined Ecomaine in the 1980s.
Gorham Public Works has Ecomaine Silver Bullets at their facility on Huston Road. People can bring recyclables there, but according to Kelly Meslin, Public Works office manager, despite efforts to educate the public too many non-allowed items are still being left on the ground. “When our workers have to clean up around the silver bullets, they can’t do their other jobs,” Meslin said, “and when people leave too much trash, there is an additional fee.”
Neither Ecomaine nor Gorham Public Works take hazardous waste. The Riverside Recycling Facility accepts them every Saturday from April to November. The last time this year will be November 5. A list of items they take for deposal is on their website, riversiderecycles.com.
For more information about what can and cannot be recycled and to learn about Ecomaine’s tours and educational outreach programs see ecomaine.org.