WELD – Town officials are asking residents to recycle more solid waste to save the town money and to reduce the total amount of bagged trash by more than 20 tons a year.
The goal for 2005 is to reduce the bagged trash from 222 tons to 200 tons, Selectman Nancy Stowell said during last Saturday’s annual town meeting.
If that can be done, she said the annual savings would be about $2,600.
In 2004, Weld spent $15,775 to send nearly 222 tons of solid waste to Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. in Auburn.
The town paid an average of nearly $256 for the disposal of one dumpster of bagged trash. That figure includes the trucking by Archie’s Inc. of Mexico, the tipping fee and the disposal costs paid to Mid-Maine Waste, Stowell said.
Last year, Archie’s made 45 trips to Auburn to truck town waste. This year, Stowell said, selectmen would like to reduce those trips to 40.
In 2005, the Sandy River Recycling Association will charge the town $40 a ton to haul recycled materials.
In comparison, if the rates stay the same, the cost of disposing of bagged trash is $106 a ton.
Stowell said a mandatory recycling ordinance that was on the town meeting warrant was withdrawn after it had been so ill-received at a public hearing.
The projected savings of $3,000 to $5,000 was not worth the hassle of upsetting people, enforcing the ordinance or paying the administrative costs, according to a handout at Saturday’s town meeting.
The mandatory recycling approach used in Wilton of disposing of garbage in clear plastic bags was also considered inappropriate for Weld at this time.
Townspeople have decided to wait and gauge the effectiveness of the town’s new trash compactor in the coming year, to encourage recycling efforts and to readdress the issue if the costs of running the transfer station continue to increase at the current rate of $3,000 a year.
It was also noted that there are to be no cash transactions at the transfer station.
Cash can be paid at the Town Office for items that carry a disposal fee, such as tires, computer monitors, mattresses, furniture and televisions.
The Maine Municipal Association has recommended that no cash transfers take place at the transfer station, according to former Selectman Laurie Pratt said. However, checks made out to the town will be accepted at the transfer station.
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