RWS Residents Can Now Sort Less and Recycle More

New signs mark changes at silver recycling bins; volunteers from Americorps and New Horizon Academy help out

PORTLAND, Maine - Southern Maine residents who drop their recyclables at one of Regional Waste System's familiar silver recycling containers can now sort less and recycle more.

New signs posted at those containers inform residents that plastic bottles, metal cans, glass and aluminum products now can be placed into the same bin. Paper items such as newspapers and cardboard will still need to go into separate bins. RWS also recently expanded the range of recyclables it accepts, adding plastic bottles (#1) and detergent or bleach bottles (#2 colored) to the mix.

For thousands of southern Maine residents, the changes will make the process of sorting recyclables easier and less time consuming, and at the same time allow them to recycle more.

"These changes will make it easier for residents to recycle and allow RWS to process even more recyclables," said Dale Olmstead, chair of the RWS Board of Directors and Freeport's town manager. "We're looking forward to more and more residents becoming aware of what we're doing and taking advantage of the changes."

The new signs at the more than 80 silver recycling containers, located in parking lots and near community centers throughout southern Maine, contain important recycling information and should be read carefully. The following items can now be "commingled" in the same bin: metal food and beverage cans; aluminum foil, trays, plates and cans; clear and colored glass bottles and jars; window glass; empty aerosol cans; and plastic containers such as milk jugs, water and cider jugs, bleach and detergent bottles, soda bottles, and vegetable oil bottles. RWS encourages residents to crush plastic containers flat.

The process of streamlining recycling at RWS actually started with the installation of new mechanical sorting equipment earlier this year. The processing equipment, a series of large conveyors on an elevated platform and a special screen which sorts some items automatically, allows RWS to more than double its recycling capacity while accepting a wider variety of materials and more mixed materials, which reduces the amount of sorting at home.

The new recycling equipment at RWS was procured by a volunteer Recycling Committee made up of citizens who serve on the RWS board. The committee is chaired by Carol Fritz of Cape Elizabeth, and its members are Susan McGinty (Cumberland), James Cloutier, Nick Mavodones, Jack Dawson (all of Portland), Scott Seaver (North Yarmouth), Len Van Gaasbeek (Hollis), Harold Meade (Bridgton) and Sally Temm (Scarborough).

Also, residents who visit the recycling containers in their communities will note that the centers themselves have been "recycled," as Americorps volunteers have scraped and painted about 20 silver containers, and volunteers from the New Horizons Academy have put up the new signs at some of those locations.

Americorps is a federally funded program which helps people pay for their education in exchange for a year of public service. This marks the fifth summer that Americorps volunteers have repainted the "Silver Bullet" containers.

The New Horizons Academy is also a federally funded program, and is located on the Westbrook campus of the University of New England. The Academy is a one-month residential program that provides motivational assessment and career planning for unemployed people between the ages of 18 and 24. This is the first time New Horizons students have worked for RWS to fulfill the program's community service requirement.

RWS, which operates Maine's largest municipal recycling program, handles the solid waste management and recycling needs of its 21 owner and 10 associate member communities in southern Maine. RWS recycling containers are set up in Baldwin, Cape Elizabeth, Casco, Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Gorham, Harrison, Hiram, Hollis, Limington, Lyman, Naples, North Yarmouth, Ogunquit, Portland, Pownal, Scarborough, Sebago, South Portland, Standish, Waterboro, Westbrook, Windham, and Yarmouth.

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