AUBURN – For something as environmentally sound as recycling, retired physics professor Dom Casavant thinks it’s remarkably wasteful.

“The way they do it now, the guy comes up on the recycling bins, stops, gets out of his car and does the triage – sorting the materials,” said Casavant, a member of the city’s Recycling Committee. He rode with a driver last fall to see how it was done.

“I timed it, and it’s an average of 60 seconds per stop and the entire time he’s at the curb sorting, the engine is idling,” he said. That wastes fuel and time and pollutes the air.

It would be better, he said, if people could toss all of their recycling into one bin and the driver could dump the bin and go. Each stop would take only a few seconds and it would be much easier for everyone involved.

Representatives from two companies that offer that kind of recycling service in Maine will meet with officials from nine communities today at the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments office to discuss the concept.

The companies – EcoMaine, based in Portland, and FCR-Casella, based in Auburn, Mass. – take recyclables to a single plant where they are sorted for sale. It’s becoming an option for communities around the country. In Maine, Bath and Portland offer single-stream curbside recycling.

Several towns in the Portland area send their recyclables to EcoMaine’s South Portland plant. Others, including Bath and Woolwich, send theirs to Casella’s plant in Massachusetts.

“Those communities all claim that they’ve saved money over the old way,” Casavant said. Lewiston, Auburn and the surrounding towns should be next, he said.

“Everyone’s interest locally has been piqued by the concept,” said Sid Hazelton, Auburn’s assistant public works director. “One thing we know is that this has to be regional in nature to work.”

Auburn formed its recycling committee last summer to study options for increasing the city’s rate of recycling, which is about 25 percent. The goal is to double that.

Hazelton said the city’s efforts so far have been to boost awareness. An educational effort last November resulted in getting 100 more recycling bins distributed in the community and boosting recyclable collections by three tons compared to November 2006.

“But there really is a need to find out just how successful this other kind of recycling can be,” Hazelton said.

The Lewiston City Council created a new solid waste task force last week. Recycling is one topic they’re considering.