LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a proposal to go to a single-stream recycling facility and buy compactors for the transfer station.

“I would like to start July 1 to give citizens plenty of time to realize this change is going to happen,” Town Manager Jim Chaousis said.

He gave credit for the plan to highway foreman Bill Nichol, who put most of the proposal together last year and then put it away. Chaousis updated the figures and fine-tuned it.

The transfer station will be open three days a week, the same as it is now.

The new system would include buying two, four-yard compactors, outfitting them for installation, and organizing multiple contracts for disposal of waste and recyclables.

The cost for the compactors is $60,000, a concrete pad is $5,000, and three-phase power connection is $4,000.

The cost would be about $160,410 for the new operation compared to $215,614 that was budgeted this year, Chaousis said.

In single-sort recycling all recyclable waste, including numerous plastics and different glasses, can be thrown in the same container. This allows recycling to be completed easier, which increases recycling, Chaousis said.

The material will be transported to a facility for automated sorting.

  The proposal calls for using ecommaine, a nonprofit waste management company owned and operated by
21 municipalities in Southern Maine.

  There is no additional appropriation of money necessary to complete the project, Chaousis said, since $47, 578 was carried over last year to implement a single-stream sort plan. There is also a real possibility there will be $35,000 left in the municipal solid waste budget, he said.

The town would reduce waste tipping fees from $85 a ton, which is now paid to Jay, to $55 a ton at Eco Maine. The latter is for a three-year contract.

The town currently hauls its trash and recyclables to Jay.

Recycling tipping fees cost $30 a ton in Jay and are zero to $15 a ton at Eco Maine, Chaousis said.

“The imperative cost savings would be if we can save the difference in transportation,” Chaousis said. “Obviously, there is a significant distance between Jay and Portland.” A preliminary estimate for transporting containers is $255 a haul, Chaousis said.

“When the math is completed, there is nearly a $59,000 savings in the first year,” he said. “This is a permanent savings plan. Savings would be recognized annually. The payback on our investment would be less than two years.” He projected the payback would be closer to one year.

Private haulers would also be required to come to the Livermore Falls Transfer Station rather than Jay.

It would give the town more control of recycling and the recycling ordinance would be able to be enforced.

“We could accept private haulers at a reduced rate,” he said. “If haulers can’t comply with (the) local ordinance, they would have to pay tipping fees to another entity at their will. Compliant haulers will see no effect but location.”

Compacting of waste and recyclables would take less space and would leave a lot of storage space on the property to be used by the town, Chaousis said.

Selectman Jim Collins said the proposal solves a couple of issues the town has been dealing with, including tipping fees for private haulers.

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