NORWAY – Selectmen are expected to decide soon whether they want to continue the current system of sorting recyclable waste or go to no-sort recycling, which is being considered by the Oxford County Regional Recycling Corp.

Selectmen recently received a letter informing them that the Oxford County Regional Recycling Corp. board voted April 9 to authorize planning for single-stream recycling beginning Jan. 1, 2015, for its 17 member towns who want to participate.

Single-stream recycling means all paper, plastics, metals and other recyclables are thrown into one collection truck without being sorted.

Oxford County Regional Recycling, a quasi municipal corporation, provides recycling collection, processing and marketing services to its member communities. Processing is done at its facility next to the transfer station on Brown Street in Norway. It also collects electronic waste for disposal.

Norway and Paris operate the solid waste transfer station on Brown Street and a construction/demolition debris facility on Frost Hill, also in Norway, under the Norway-Paris Solid Waste Inc., a quasi municipal corporation.

Norway Town Manager David Holt said Monday that the current sorting system for recyclables is going well.

“They do a pretty good job of it,” he said.

The town passed a recycling ordinance in December 1991.

Holt said he believes that if Norway and Paris go to single-stream recycling they will never go back to sorting materials.

Stephen Bies, chairman of Oxford County Regional Recycling Corp. board, said in an April 14 letter to selectmen that if the town goes to single-stream recycling, all recyclables would go into the bins at the transfer station on Jan. 1, 2015. The same scheduled pickup would be in place, the materials would be delivered to the recycling facility for compacting and then sent to a facility in either Lewiston or South Portland.

The transfer station could also install a compactor for all recyclables and ship the full containers to the facility to save two-thirds or more in transportation fees, Bies said.

Oxford County Regional Recycling is looking into the benefits of both systems before a determination is made. Its board is expected to meet May 14 and is asking representatives from member towns to participate.

Member towns/plantations are Bethel, Brownfield, Canton, Denmark, Gilead, Greenwood, Hanover, Hebron, Lincoln Plantation, Livermore, Milton Plantation, Newry, Norway, Otisfield, Paris, Woodstock and Upton.

The Oxford County Regional Recycling board includes Chairman Bies, Vice Chairman Fred Henderson of Greenwood, Treasurer Lloyd Sweetser of Bethel and Secretary Ryan Lorrain of Paris. Each town is entitled to have one representative on the board.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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