LIVERMORE — The Oxford County Recycling work group recently agreed to move the organization to a single-sort recycling program, Livermore Administrative Assistant Kurt Schaub said.

“If all goes as planned, the new recycling program will launch this fall,” he said. “Given that the organization works on behalf of 18 towns, there are still quite a few details to be worked out, including the selection of a vendor/processor and transportation.”

At this time, it is believed the process will progress along the lines of the one followed for the town’s regional solid waste agreement. In that agreement, all towns pay a uniform disposal rate.

Schaub said he updated the Board of Selectpersons on the plan Feb. 10.

Transportation costs vary based on distance to the disposal site. Oxford County Recycling is based in Norway.

“Our goals are, first, to obtain the most favorable arrangements for our member/owner towns and, second, to maintain the organization’s collective bargaining power to maximize savings where we can,” Schaub said. “From a budgetary standpoint, I don’t believe Livermore will see direct savings. Our present annual dues payment to Oxford is $9,305, which can easily be equated with the cost of transporting our recyclables to a processing facility.”

The town also needs to consider the added convenience for residents and the collective amount of time they will save from having to sort their recyclables, he said.

The town will also incur the cost of installing a second compactor to accommodate just recyclables, he said.

Neighboring Livermore Falls has a compactor for trash and one for recyclables. It has an agreement with ecomaine. Residents don’t have to separate recyclables into different bags or containers. They can put them into one container or bag and empty the contents into the compactor. The agreement also allows for more types of plastics to be recycled. Instead of just No. 2 plastic, residents can recycle No. 1 through No. 7 plastics.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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