recycling

After discontinuing a curbside recycling program last spring, Auburn city councilors voted unanimously Monday night to approve a new pilot program within designated areas of the city. Councilor Dana Staples called the pilot, which will start in November, a good step.

At a town hall Wednesday, the Municipal Review Committee said it has partnered with Innovative Resource Recovery, and is set to close the sale next week.

The bill would mean that redemption centers would have to do much less sorting than they do today. And a new, nonprofit cooperative would manage the collection program statewide.

That program has gotten more complex over the years, with a growing variety of plastic, glass and aluminum drink containers that redemption centers must sort into different bins. Lawmakers recently passed a funding boost for those centers. Now they’re looking to go further and streamline the process by which containers are collected and sent back for recycling.

Rural recycling programs have struggled for years, but the news that Maine’s fifth-largest city, less than 45 minutes from Portland, can’t keep a curbside recycling program afloat caused hand-wringing among residents and advocates.

Maine's redemption centers would receive a financial boost under a bill that is headed to Gov. Janet Mill's desk.

Auburn councilors voted unanimously Monday night to eliminate the city's recycling program. Councilor Stephen Milks, who made the motion, said the program is no longer worth it.

The Municipal Review Committee says it has partnered with a third firm, Innovative Resource Recovery, that’s already backed by a well-funded investment company.

Maine's bottle deposit law has been credited with reducing litter and increasing recycling rates. That's largely insulated it from sweeping changes. But inflation, labor shortages and the costly sorting of a growing array of bottles and cans are posing new challenges for the program.

Maine has more than 100,000 registered boats. At an average of 15 pounds of shrink wrap per boat (a 30-foot boat requires about 30 pounds), that’s more than 1.5 million pounds of plastic coming off boats around the state each spring, the vast majority bound for landfills or incinerators.