Maine sets recycling record

Ecomaine has announced that it has broken its own recycling record by processing more than 66.8 million pounds of material in one year (July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010). The nonprofit’s previous record of 61.4 million pounds was established just last year.

Ecomaine’s newly elected chairman of the board of directors is Portland director of public services Michael Bobinsky.

The financial strain felt by most municipalities has been one reason for the increase. “Recycling is free at ecomaine,” explained Bobinsky, “but trash disposal is billed to the municipality by the ton, so the more recyclables removed from trash, the less money a town must devote to trash disposal.” As a result, many communities have increased efforts to promote recycling.

“Another reason for the increase in recycling,” he added, “is that our single-sort technology has greatly simplified recycling.” As a result, ecomaine believes citizens who have not recycled in the past are beginning to participate and those who have been recycling all along are doing more.

To encourage recycling, ecomaine posts monthly recycling statistics for each town on its website (www.ecomaine.org). Of its 39 participating communities, the one with the best recycling average at the end of fiscal year 2010 was North Yarmouth at 48.02 percent.