KENNEBUNKPORT – Curbside recycling, on hiatus for the past 16 months, is soon to return, and to mark the occasion the town and ecomaine will host a kickoff event to mark the occasion on Saturday, Jan. 9.
Free recycling bins for the first 100 households, giveaways, and information about the new single-sort, curbside recycling program are on tap for the event, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the drive-through garage of the public works facility. The garage is located at 105 Beachwood Ave., adjacent to Rotary Park.
Kennebunkport residents can get information about recycling – which resumes Jan. 12, at an event at the public works facility on Saturday, Jan. 9. Dan King photo
The new curbside recycling program will begin on Jan. 12. Pine Tree Waste, a division of Casella Waste Systems, will pick up recycling at curbside every other week.
On hand to answer questions at the drive-through event will be Environmental Educator Vanessa Berry and Business Development Manager Lissa Bittermann, both of ecomaine, along with Kennebunkport municipal staff and members of the town’s recycling committee.
The town had scrapped recycling in August 2019, after costs increased, and there were no additional budgeted funds at the time to pay for the program.
The Kennebunkport Solid Waste Committee in January 2020 recommended that the board of selectmen re-institute curbside recycling – and on Sept. 24, they did so, in a unanimous vote.
The town will pay Pine Tree Waste $66,026 to pick up and haul recycling materials to ecomaine from January through Aug. 31 – a total of 17 weeks. From Sept. 1, 2021 through Aug. 31,2022, the town will pay $103,000; $105, 060 the following year, and $107,161 in the third full year of the contract, which expires Aug. 31, 2024.
The town will be charged $95 per ton for disposal by ecomaine.
The single-sort recycling program allows Kennebunkport residents to collect paper, cardboard, metal cans, glass bottles and jars, and hard plastic containers Nos. 1 to 7 in one container for recycling at curbside.
For more information, visit ecomaine.org.
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