AUBURN — Recycling collections in the rural southern part of Auburn will be cut in half under a money-saving plan.

The city is changing curbside collections on Fridays beginning Dec. 4, according to Assistant Public Works Director Sid Hazelton. That’s currently the longest route in the city.

“It has the most road miles, and we’re trying to avoid some of the fuel, vehicle maintenance and overtime costs that we’ve had occurring on Fridays,” Hazelton said.

Currently, the city’s Friday collections route has 1,600 customers, about even with other recycling collection routes.

Under the new plan, the city will collect recyclables from half those customers — those living on the west side of South Main Street and Pownal Road — on the first and third Fridays of the month. Those living west of  South Main Street and Pownal Road will have their recyclables collected on the second and fourth Fridays of the month.

The change is expected to save the city $3,000 per year. Hazelton said the city mailed letters to residents stating that they will see their recycling collections changed. The city plans to put up a map of the area explaining the change by Tuesday on the city’s Web site, www.auburnmaine.org.

Trash collection will continue on their normal schedule. The change only affects people that have their recycling collected on Fridays and only recycling collection — for now.

“It makes sense to change on Fridays, because that’s the route with the most road miles traveled,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve tried something like this, but depending on how it goes we might try it some other day. But it’s just on Fridays for now.”

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