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Article originally appears in the Waste & Recycling News on August 8, 2011
Recycling paid off last year for four Main municipalities, which avoided paying a combined $1 million in waste disposal costs.
From July 1, 2010, through June, residents and businesses of Cape Elizabeth, Portland, Scarborough and South Portland recycled their waste through Portland based EcoMaine, a nonprofit group which is owned and operated by 21 municipalities in southern Maine. EcoMaine has a single-sort recycling facility, a waste-to-energy plant and a landfill/ashfill site.
“Recycling makes a real difference to the bottom line,” Michael Bobinsky, Portland’s director of public services, said in a statement.
For example, last year Portland separated 5,358 tons of recyclable material. The city paid $88 to dispose of every ton of trash, Bobinsky said, which equated to a savings of $471,504. And there is potential for even greater financial benefit if Portland’s 35% recycling rate grows, Bobinsky said.
Cape Elizabeth, which had a recycling rate of 33%, avoided costs of $111,056; Scarborough, with a recycling rate of 34%, saved $240,504; and South Portland had a recycling rate of 28% and avoided costs of $216, 568.
“That’s why raising community awareness of recycling is so important,” Kevin Roche, EcoMaine’s general manager, said in a statement. “We want everyone to understand that recycling is an advantage for their communities ecologically and economically, and that with a single-sort technology, it couldn’t be easier to participate.”
Statistics for each of EcoMaine’s 39 recycling communities are updated monthly and can be viewed at www.ecomaine.org.
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