Life is about making choices and balancing risks. Recently, the Bangor Daily News has published a series of OpEds arguing that the selection of Fiberight for solid waste disposal and energy conversion is too risky. Yet, councilors and citizens in Trenton, Tremont, Southwest Harbor, Mount Desert, Bar Harbor and dozens more municipalities, after listening to arguments from both sides, came to a different conclusion.
While it is easy to get lost in the details of this complex issue, the decision to go with Fiberight over any other disposal option including PERC beginning in 2018 can be boiled down to three basic points:
It’s cheaper: The tipping fees for PERC will rise in 2018, when $20 million in subsidies end. Although it was requested by the Municipal Review Committee, PERC did not present a plan to accommodate this; Fiberight did. We could gamble that profit-driven PERC will figure it out, or we can rely on the municipally governed MRC and the safeguards it has built into its contracts to protect communities and hold Fiberight to the $70 per ton tipping fee. There are no such protections in the PERC agreements.
It’s easier: City councils and select boards must balance the needs of all stakeholders. What may be desirable is not always practical, realistic or cost-effective. The fact of the matter is that Fiberight will recover more recyclables than PERC or other disposal options by taking a second pass at the waste and removing recyclables before further processing. Furthermore, the Fiberight process will productively convert organics and food scraps to biogas without the need to separate them from trash or move them to a different location.
It’s cleaner: Fiberight will produce fewer residuals than PERC and do so with a smaller carbon footprint. The conversion of organics to biogas is more efficient than the combustion to electricity. PERC’s plan to cycle its boilers will add to maintenance costs and may cause significant safety and environmental compliance issues. Furthermore, it takes a lot of energy to burn trash and the process of heating it up is sadly inefficient. At a time when April was the 12th consecutive warmest month recorded, we can find a better way to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
Change can be hard, especially when it’s more comfortable to continue with practices one feels are time-tested and proven. But PERC’s post-2018 plan for operation is completely untried and unproven. And a future with PERC will not be like the current relationship municipalities have experienced through the years. The loss of subsidy means the tip fee will need to be $105 — not the $85 PERC advertises. And, perhaps most importantly, there will be no municipal oversight of PERC.
MRC reviewed PERC’s prospects and 15 other options based on the long-term affordability and environmental aspects before deciding to move forward with Fiberight. Fiberight is a better way to manage our waste through increased recycling, the recovery of organics and at a cost that our communities can afford.
Cornell Knight is the Bar Harbor town manager. Durlin Lunt is the Mount Desert town manager. Dana Reed, the Tremont town manager; Dick Vander Zanden, a Trenton selectman; and Don Lagrange, the Southwest Harbor town manager signed on in support of this OpEd.