Residents heading to the South Berwick transfer station on the second week of the new recycling system learned they can throw all recyclables into the same bin.
After launching the streamlined recycling system July 1, with one bin to accept paper and cardboard and one for everything else, transfer station employees were told that in fact all recyclables should be handled together.
The change came after clearing up a misunderstanding about what the recycling hauler, ecomaine, was requesting, according to Town Manager Tim Pellerin. The corrugated cardboard, in fact, helps hold the materials together, Pellerin said he learned.
Nonetheless, the first weekend of a new recycling system at the transfer station was a resounding success for residents and station employees, Pellerin told the Town Council at its meeting July 8.
Since the July 1 switch to a different trash hauler, the transfer station is now using single source recycling: instead of having to sort tin, aluminum, glass and plastics into four separate bins, residents can now dump it all together into one of the two new compactors.
“Before this, people had to drive all over the yard to take care of their recycling. Now they can just pull up, throw recycling in the … bins and get in their cars and leave,” Pellerin said of the new system.
In other changes, the transfer station stopped accepting leaves or ash for disposal this month. The town had previously paid $20,000 per year to haul leaves to Doucette Excavating on Route 4, but now residents can dispose of their leaves at Doucette directly at no cost.
During a visit to the transfer station July 5, Pellerin observed the new process and talked to residents and staff about their experiences.
“It seemed to be a great success, people are happy,” he told councilors later that week. “Even staff said it went smoother than they thought.”
So far, there have been two complaints about not accepting leaves and at least one complaint about not accepting ash, Pellerin said. However, other residents reported that dropping leaves at Doucette Excavating was easier because there is more room at that facility to maneuver a trailer full of leaves.
Other residents expressed concern to Pellerin Saturday about whether the plastics, glass and metals they were dropping in bins actually get recycled.
“I assured them, it does,” Pellerin said simply.
The impetus for some of the changes at the transfer station was a July 1 switch the town made to ecomaine, the Portland-based company it hires to haul recyclables.
To mark the transition, ecomaine is holding an event at the transfer station from 8 a.m. to 12 noon Saturday, Aug. 16. Experts from the company will be on hand to answer questions about where the trash goes, how the recycling is done, what can and can’t go into a home recycling bin, and whatever else the public wants to know. The first 50 people at the event will also receive a new recycling bin, courtesy of ecomaine.
In other trash related news, the Town Council on July 8 approved just over $30,000 to put new siding on the office/compactor building at the transfer station. The siding on the structure is over 30 years old and has started to rot off the building, Pellerin said.
“In some places you can put your finger through the wall, it has degraded that bad,” he said.
The town recently sought bids for the work to re-side the building with T1-11 plywood siding panels, and received three bids. The council unanimously approved awarding the contract for the work to Armor Exteriors based in Greene, which came in with the lowest bid at $30,900.
Funds to pay for the project will be taken out of leftover transfer station maintenance funds from last year and won’t require any additional appropriations, Pellerin said. The work is expected to begin within 30 days.
