Maine has made incremental progress toward its statewide recycling goal in recent years after losing ground before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About 36% of household waste was recycled in 2024, the highest point in five years, according to a new report from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
That is still well below a longstanding goal of recycling half of the state's trash. The state was supposed to meet that goal in 2021.
Lucy Sullivan, a spokesperson for EcoMaine in Portland, said convenience often leads to higher recycling rates for the dozens of towns and cities in southern Maine that send their waste to the company.
"Communities that are able to provide curbside pickup have much, much higher recycling rates than communities where people have to for example travel to a transfer station to get their recycling done," Sullivan said.
Maine lost almost $22 million from recoverable materials disposed in its waste stream, according to the report. Roughly 481,000 tons of greenhouse gas pollution could have been avoided if typical household recyclable and compostable waste was diverted away from landfills, it added.
Maine's waste generation is also increasing and outpacing the state's population growth, according to the DEP report. It suggests boosting the state's second-hand goods market and expanding initiatives to share things like camping gear and tools.
Sullivan said increasing trash in the state is a troubling trend, especially since reduction and reuse are top waste management priorities.
"As much as we love disposing of things properly, we love recycling, we love waste-to-energy, the best thing we can do is just create less waste in the first place," Sullivan said. "That's going to be of course your lowest cost option on the individual level, on the municipal level, everywhere."
The DEP said that an upcoming program to make manufacturers pay to dispose of packaging has "the potential to make meaningful progress in its statutory recycling goal."
The extended producer responsibility initiative would require companies to reimburse municipalities for the cost of getting rid of packaging materials. The program is expected to be operational by fall 2027.
