This is in response to the Feb. 22 story, “Kingfield trying single-sort recycling.”

The nonprofit Sandy River Recycling Association does not collect trash; it collects recyclable materials. Trash is trucked to landfills by haulers such as Waste Management Inc. Recyclables are trucked by SRRA to its facility in Farmington, where they are baled and sold to mills in the U.S. and Canada.

It is extremely unlikely that single-sort recycling will save money in the rural part of the state far from the state’s only single-sort facility in Portland. Transport to Portland is estimated at $500 per trip. To make the trip as efficient as possible would require the purchase of a stationary compactor at an estimated cost of $21,500. And while single-sort takes all kinds of plastic containers, plastics other than #2 HPDE (like milk and detergent jugs) only represent an estimated 2-3 percent of recyclable material in terms of tons. Hence, savings in trash disposal would be minimal.

The $40 per ton cost for Kingfield’s single-sort experiment is not only well below the total cost associated with any documented single-sort alternative for towns in rural Maine, it reflects only the transportation cost from Kingfield to Waste Management’s non-single sort facility in Norridgewock for the trial period. SRRA believes the cost will be much higher after the trial period ends.

For more insights into single-sort, people should check out “Is Single Stream the Answer?” in the March 2010 issue of the Maine Townsman .

Jo Josephson, Farmington

President, Sandy River Recycling Association