Two regional waste cooperative boards have recommended that their towns change their longtime waste disposal relationship and send their trash and recyclables to a Portland company.
The boards of the Mid-Coast Solid Waste Corporation based in Rockport and the three-town cooperative that serves Thomaston, South Thomaston and Owls Head voted separately last week to recommend that their communities enter into a contract with ecomaine of Portland. The towns currently send their waste to the Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. in Orrington.
Meanwhile, the largest community in Knox County, Rockland, is still mulling its options on where to take its waste once its contract with PERC ends in 2018.
On March 23, the Mid-Coast Solid Waste board voted 4-2 to recommend going with ecomaine, Manager Jim Guerra said.
Guerra said the majority of the board supported ecomaine because it has an existing facility featuring technology with which they are familiar. Ecomaine first recycles waste, then burns what’s left to produce electricity at its waste-to-energy plant.
The select boards of Camden, Rockport, Lincolnville and Hope will meet with Mid-Coast Solid Waste to go over the recommendation at 6 p.m. Monday at the Rockport Opera House. Each town will then likely vote on which option to go with at their annual town meetings, each of which will be held in June.
The two dissenting members of the board supported going with the joint proposal by the Municipal Review Committee and Fiberight LLC, which proposes a new facility that would process the wastes. The MRC is competing with PERC to secure long-term trash contracts that take effect in 2018.
There was no support for continuing with PERC.
Fiberight is offering to process MRC members’ trash at a cost of $70 per ton for a 15-year contract. PERC’s latest tipping fee price is $84.36 per ton for a 15-year agreement or $89.57 for a 10-year contract.
Ecomaine has offered a price of $70.50 per ton.
The three-town cooperative voted to go with ecomaine 5-1 on March 24, said Thomaston Selectman Peter Lammert.
Lammert said he supported ecomaine for a variety of reasons. Ecomaine has the capacity to handle the wastes, it accepts single-stream materials, and it has a permit for incinerator ash, he said.
But one aspect of ecomaine that Lammert particularly likes is its emphasis on educating young people about recycling. That will benefit the environment and the communities, he said.
He acknowledged that transportation costs will be greater because ecomaine’s facility is about 80 miles from Thomaston’s transfer station and PERC is 52 miles.
One uncertainty with the three-town cooperative, however, is that the warrant for the South Thomaston town meeting has already been set with the town meeting to be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Gilford Butler School. On the warrant is an article for the town to remain a member of the MRC and its affiliate Fiberight in Hampden.
Lammert said if one town goes with one option and the other two go with another, he expects that there would have to be a three-town meeting at some point for a second vote.
South Thomaston Selectman Jan Gaudio agreed a revote would be needed if the other towns in the cooperative voted for a different option. He said he supports the MRC Fiberight proposal because it is more advanced technology that removes more items from the waste stream than what is offered by ecomaine.
Thomaston is scheduled to have its town meeting in June. Owls Head’s regular town meeting has not been scheduled but is generally in late summer or early fall. Owls Head has a special town meeting set for April 4, but the waste issue is not on that warrant.
Rockland City Manager James Chaousis said he wants to meet with citizens group Renew Rockland before he makes a recommendation to the City Council on which waste disposal option to pursue.
The MRC has given towns and cities until May 1 or within seven days after their town meetings to commit to its proposal to get the best rates.