Augusta Matters

Recently, the City Council authorizes a new pilot program in conjunction with ecomaine for a single-sort recycling program. Ecomaine is a nonprofit, recycling and waste-to-energy operation that serves 25 percent of the state’s population. With single-sort, residents will be able to recycle a greater variety of materials, and it will not need to be separated. Under the new six month pilot program, we will offer single-sort recycling at Hatch Hill, the John Charest Public Works Facility on North Street and City Center. The City Center location will become available in the Spring when the snow melts.

The single-sort recycling program kicks off on Friday, March 6, 2015 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the John Charest Public Works Facility with ecomaine offering a full slate of educational materials and outreach events designed to let people know how they can take full advantage of the new service. The outreach effort will include a kick-off event, community outreach booths, presentations, posters and other educational materials. Additional outreach events include:

• Presentation and Q&A sessions on Tuesday, March 3, 2015, at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. at City Center;
• Presentation and Q&A session on March 14, 2015; 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.at Lithgow Library;
• Presentation and Q&A sessions on March 17, 2015, at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.at City Center;
• Information table on March 20, 2015, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Public Works; and
• Information table at on March 27, 2015 from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m at Public Works .

At each event, ecomaine staff will be on hand to explain how the program works, provide take-home informational materials and answer any questions. In addition, the presentations will include a detailed explanation of how ecomaine’s single-sort recycling works and a virtual tour of ecomaine’s sorting facility in Portland. The first 25 people at each event will receive free ecomaine recycling bins.