Sargeant Drive Recycling Resumes December 13, 2021!!

Recycling Poster - Zero Sort Recycling

General Recycling Tips - Yes and No

Sargeant Drive Recycling Resumes December 13, 2021!!

Due to the closure of the Coastal Resources of Maine (CRM) facility in Hampden, we have been unable to recycle since May 2020 after changing to the One-Bin-All-In process on January 1, 2020. This process called for a mixture of trash and recyclables to be hauled to CRM where they were separated and processed into saleable products. The technology used in the process by CRM worked very well but, the owners lacked the funding to make improvements to the facility. They had agreed to terms of a loan from a lender that was denied them at the 11th hour. The funds would have allowed the owners of CRM to make approximately 35 improvements to the facility that would have enhanced processing efficiencies, hence their closing their doors in May 2020.

The Municipal Review Committee has been working very hard to sell CRM, a state-of-the-art solid waste and recycling processing facility, to owner/operators and continue to do so. As an interim measure, the Town is re-opening its recycling center located at the highway garage at 307 Sargeant Drive. We will have two containers for the materials, one for just corrugated cardboard and boxboard and one for co-mingled materials. When a container is full, we will contact Acadia Roll-offs of Southwest Harbor. They will haul the full container to Casella’s Old Town recycling center leaving an empty one in its place at our recycling center. We had contacted Ellsworth where we had been recycling prior to 2020 but, due to capacity and labor issues, they were unable to accept our materials.  

Following is a summary of what is acceptable to be put in the containers at our recycling center and what is not.   

Cardboard and boxboard container:

Acceptable: Flattened cardboard & boxboard only. Examples of boxboard include shoe boxes and gift boxes.

Unacceptable: Wax-coated or plastic-coated cardboard. Plastic-coated cardboard is typically used for containers that are meant to be stored in a refrigerator or freezer to keep them from getting soggy; no cereal boxes (they can go in the co-mingled container minus the bad inside the box).

Co-mingled materials container:

Newspapers, magazines, and mail, including envelopes with windows

Flattened cereal boxes – no liners or bags

Clean metallic and aluminum cans – rinsed out

Plastic bottles – rinsed out

Plastic jugs like soap, milk, water – rinsed out

One gallon or less glass bottles – rinsed out

Materials other than these will cause the load to be rejected and dumped as trash.