BIDDEFORD – The Solid Waste and Recycling Commission in Biddeford is teaching residents how to become better recyclers with the city’s new composting program and zero-sort recycling flyers.

Beginning in May, residents have been able to purchase a small container, called the Sure Close Compost Pail at the Biddeford Recycling Center on Hill Road to compost their food waste which can be dropped off at the center. According to Martin Grohman, chair of the commission, the program has been a great help in the way of curbside recycling.

“We sell a little kitchen pail,” Grohman said. “It’s $8.50. The reason that’s so important is that putting food in the trash costs all taxpayers money. If you get it over there, at those orange bins in the Recycling Center, it saves us money.”

Tyler Gleason, operations manager of We Compost It!, which runs the composting program, said that so far they have been picking up anywhere from 200 to 400 pounds of food waste each week.

“Our whole model is to return nutrients to soil,” said Gleason. “What we want to do in Biddeford is to open up that opportunity.”

Biddeford summer resident Andrew Lindsay said he and his wife have been bringing compost to the Recycling Center once a week for the past two weeks.

“I think it’s a great development,” he said. “Very forward-thinking for Biddeford.”

Eliminating food waste from the blue bin is a key factor in the recycling process, according to Grohman, but residents also need to be careful about what other kinds of materials they’re tossing into recycling.

Grohman said Biddeford is in the middle of a 10-year contract with Casella, a zero-sort recycling service for residents.

He said the company collects about 9,000 residences’ curbside recyclables per week.

“Casella takes it from the blue bin, and they take it to a sorting facility,” he said. “All that stuff goes on the conveyor belt, so you can see what a bunch of plastic bags would do on a conveyor belt.”

If Casella’s specifications are not met, Grohman said, the materials cannot be reused, and the city could be charged a contamination fee.

“That’s never happened,” Grohman said, noting that spreading the word will keep it from happening. “The material has to be clean and dry for it to be recycled. So the key message is, in order for it to be recycled, if there’s food on it, if it’s greasy, don’t put it in the recycling.”

Jim Thibodeau, a laborer at the Recycling Center, said that while most residents do a good job properly sorting their materials, there could be more education.

“Most of the regulars know what to do,” he said. “If someone’s doing the wrong thing, they’ll try and ignore you. They don’t want to ask if they don’t know where something goes.”

At least 100 people a day will come to the center, according to Thibodeau, with summertime being the busiest season.

“Everything at the center is sorted by hand,” he said. “We’re a four-man crew, and one of us is usually on the road during the day.”

Thibodeau said the biggest mistake people make is throwing trash into the recycling bins.

“You’d be surprised how much trash we get from these bins. A lot of older people will do this,” he said, pointing to a box of aluminum foil inside a recycling container. “Does this look recyclable to you?”

Grohman agreed.

“It’s a phenomenon people call wish-cycling,” he said. “It feels good to put stuff in the recycling, and we want people to put as much as they can in recycling, but if you put something in that can’t go in the [curbside] program, like a Styrofoam coffee cup, it’s just a contaminant, and it actually reduces the recyclability.”

Casella and the commission have developed a flyer that will be affixed to the bins sometime this summer, according to Grohman. The flyer includes graphics and information instructing residents on how they can be better recyclers, which, Grohman said, will cut down on confusion and cost.

Grohman said trash is measured by weight.

“It’s just under $60 a ton,” he said. “If it’s not accepted by our program, it doesn’t mean it’s not recyclable overall. For example, a plastic bag, the Walmart or Hannaford bag — those are recyclable. By Maine state law all those major retailers have to take those back. So if you walk inside the door of a Walmart, you’ll see a bag recycling area. But that plastic bag can’t go in the curbside.

“We say, ‘When in doubt, throw it out,’” Grohman said, “which is funny — it’s a mindset change for some people, but that’s what we’re asking for.”

Grohman also said that recycling will benefit the local economy.

“Now that we can’t ship waste to China, it’s actually creating jobs here in Maine,” he said, “so I think it’s short-term pain, long-term gain. That’s one of the reasons we’re working so hard to get the word out.”

Lindsay said that communication about the composting program can only improve.

“I came to the center to throw some junk away from my garage,” he said, “and I happened to see the compost bins. Maybe it’s just because I’m only here in the summer.”

Catherine Bart can be reached at cbart@mainelymediallc.com.

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