Farmington and Carrabassett Valley are taking part of a pilot project this summer that will allow residents to recycle four more kinds of plastics in addition to the traditional clear and colored No. 2 milk jugs and detergent bottles.

It is being offered through Sandy River Recycling Association, a nonprofit organization that serves 21 towns in central Maine.

The project in Farmington started June 30 and runs through September. People can bring in clean plastic containers coded on the bottom with a No. 3 (such as juice bottles), No. 4 (squeezable bottles), No. 5 (wide-mouth containers and tubs, disposable cups and plates), and No. 7 (beverage bottles, baby milk bottles).

At each transfer station, there will be informational handouts, well-marked barrels and a sign with a display of permitted and non-allowable plastics that include Styrofoam, plastic bags, polythene wrapping material known as Bubble Wrap and clamshell-shaped, take-out food containers.

“Those plastics are made with different resins and if they are present in a load, it reduces its value or makes it worthless,” association Director Ron Slater said.

Farmington Town Manager Richard Davis explained the program to selectmen on Tuesday.

“We are hoping for good public participation,” Davis said. “This does get more plastics out of the waste stream and landfills but there is not a lot of money to be gained.”

“I am looking forward to this and hope the citizens embrace it,” Chairman Steve Bunker said.

Slater said the success of the project depends on community participation.

“We’re starting this with two towns, one rural community and the largest town in our association, to see how it works,” he said. “We’re taking baby steps to see the kind of volume and quality we get in. If it is a success, we will add more towns.”

The project will also evaluate the impact on the association’s facility on Farmington Falls Road that is geared toward handling, baling and storing only No. 2 plastic jugs and bottles along with carefully segregated mixed and high-grade paper, tin, aluminum, cardboard and glass.

The association’s board of directors, representing towns in three counties, voted at its last meeting to move forward with the pilot project because it has been requested by residents and town officials, Slater said.

Another issue has been the growing concern that member towns are being wooed by single-stream recycling associations that are actively marketing their services.

According to the State Planning Office, single stream is a system where all recycled materials are collected and combined in a single container, truck, compactor or trailer and transported to a large, centralized facility for separation and processing for market. While collection costs decrease in single stream, processing costs increase significantly, necessitating high volumes of materials and large-scale facilities.

“We’ve been here for 20 years and have a proven track record,” Slater said. “We provide clean materials and we maintain a good accounting of all the products that come through, and we know where they go.”

“Every time a town drops out, we lose that revenue. Right now, we are trying to keep our head above water,” Slater said.

The association also provides other services to its member towns, he said. It has an educational program that promotes recycling, maintains a food residuals composting program with area schools and institutions, and accepts electronic equipment, fluorescent bulbs, used motor oil and antifreeze.

Revenue is mainly raised through the sale of recyclables with about 25 percent of its operating budget funded by member towns. The amount each community pays annually depends on the tonnage transported and processed and this year, the fee was $52 a ton, far below the cost of disposing of waste at commercial landfills, Slater said.

As of May 13, the price for No. 2 high density polyethylene bottles such as milk jugs was $764 a ton; mixed clear and colored No. 2 plastic was $624 a ton, according to Slater. In August 2009, No. 2 plastic sold for $330 a ton.

Plastics coded as No. 3 have the least value because there is no domestic market and is sold to mills in China. Currently, No. 3 plastic sells for $174 a ton, delivered to Boston Harbor at a cost to the seller of about $850 per cargo container.

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