We are happy to see the city of Lewiston switching to single-stream recycling, something we have advocated for both cities for several years.

When Lewiston began its recycling program in the early 1990s, it urged residents to separate their recyclables within the container or in several containers.

Some people still do, but many do not. Now, however, it won’t matter — everything will go into a single container.

This makes recycling simple, which also makes people more likely to participate. Recycling rates in the Twin Cities have been dismally low for years.

What’s more, Lewiston now will accept a larger variety of recycled materials, including all types of recyclable plastic, colored glass and aluminum foil.

The best part? Single-stream saves money, about $18,000 a year for Lewiston.

The savings comes in the collection. Currently, a truck and driver must stop at every residence that has recyclables and sort the material while the truck idles.

Single-stream allows a driver to simply pick up the recycling, dump it and go, resulting in the savings.

The material then will be shipped to one of several companies in Maine that sell the material to pay for the sorting.

If this system is saving money in Lewiston, it’s hard to see why it wouldn’t do the same in Auburn.

Perhaps the two cities could work together on a plan that would cut costs even further.

The ultimate would be single-stream recycling combined with pay-per-bag collection.

Recycling would soar, garbage collection would plummet and we would be a much greener community.

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