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Pioneer Times photo/Joseph Cyr |
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — Expanded recycling options are now available for customers of Pine Tree Waste Services.
Dean Lawrence, operations manager for Pine Tree Waste in Houlton, said that the offering more types of materials for recycling has been the top suggestion from customers for some time. The reason is simple. The more a person can recycle, the less garbage goes into their trash bag, which in turn saves the consumer money since Pine Tree Waste is a pay-per-bag system for trash disposal.
Previously, Pine Tree Waste only accepted corrugated cardboard, No. 2 plastic, metal cans, glass bottles, newsprint, magazine and office paper.
Under the new system, customers are able to recycle all types of cardboard (including cereal boxes and food boxes) and all types of plastics (Nos. 1-7), as well as large plastic items such as laundry baskets.
Lawrence said many customers were already throwing additional plastics and cardboards into the recycling, which led to some contamination issues.
Last year, Pine Tree Waste shipped 43.68 tons of office paper, 1,242.14 tons of cardboard; 125.46 tons of newspapers; 19.54 tons of metals; and 23.78 tons of plastics for a total of 1,454.60 total tons of recyclable material from greater Houlton customers.
Linneus, New Limerick, Monticello, Amity, Cary, Hodgdon and Littleton all send recyclable material to the Houlton facility.
“The numbers coming in are pretty good,” Lawrence said. “There are lots of things, though, that we still don’t take that other areas do.”
The most commonly requested item is wood pellet bags, he said.
Cathy Davis, a member of the Houlton Recycling Committee that was formed earlier this year to raise awareness on the importance of recycling, welcomed the news of expanded products accepted at the Houlton transfer station.
“This news is huge,” Davis said. “When we first started talking with Brian (Hovey), he said single sort would be years coming to Houlton, cost of transportation alone being so huge, and not having the infrastructure to support it, so we were so excited to have this change which is almost as good as single sort.
“Yes, we have to work a little at it, a trip to the transfer station is a little time consuming if, like us, you are dumping a bin of cans, a bin of glass, a bin of plastics, a bin of paper, and then tossing your purple bag, but we’ve never spent more than 10 minutes there,” she continued “It’s not like there are 7,000 people waiting in line either. My goal is to put the town in a ‘Let’s do it’ mode!”
For more information, visit www. casella.com or call 532-6804.
