By Renee Worthing 

Staff Writer 

Kennebunkport officials gave residents the OK to toss recyclables, including paper, aluminum, glass and plastics, in the same blue bin.

Recycle bins will be emptied by Oceanside Rubbish and transferred to Scarborough-based FCR Goodman, whose parent company is Casella Waste Systems of Burlington, Vt.

“Some people can’t believe they don’t have to sort their recyclables anymore,” Oceanside Rubbish, Inc Vice President and General Manager Carl Ekstedt said. “Technology has come so far, we can sort and recycle all of it.”

Kennebunkport Town Manager Larry Mead said the town’s $186,000 contract with Oceanside Rubbish, Inc. includes $150,000 for the disposal of trash at Maine Energy Recovery Company and $36,000 for the recycling service. 

The town also has a contract to pay Maine Energy, also a subsidiary of Casella Waste Systems, $62 per ton for tipping fees, the fee charged per ton to offload rubbish at Maine Energy, he said.

In fiscal year 2006/2007, the town paid a total of $164,000 in tipping fees to Maine Energy, Mead said.

He said this year Kennebunkport budgeted $198,000 for tipping fees and the pending budget calls for $202,000.

“The savings to the town will come through reduced tipping fees,” Mead said. “Every ton we can avoid (collecting) will save money,” he said, noting glass and stacks of paper are heavy and contribute to the weight of trash. 

He said the recycling effort was initiated by the states fines and incentives programs meant to encourage municipalities to meet certain goals. 

“Going green caught on and now most people want to reduce their carbon footprint,” Mead said. 

Mead, who lives in Scarborough, said he could attest to the single stream method of recycling. 

“We have automated recycling pickup and I easily doubled, if not tripled what I recycle,” Mead said. 

He said while automated recycling pickup in Kennebunkport would not be cost effective because of the communities small population of about 4,000 year-round residents, he said not having to sort recyclables makes it easy for residents to recycle. 

“We used to have all kinds of rules like tying up bundles of newspaper and cardboard,” Mead said.  “You don’t have to do that anymore.  Just toss it in the bin.” 

Ekstedt said Oceanside Rubbish has seen an increase in the amount of recyclables collected in the past few weeks since single stream pick up began. 

“People have latched onto the idea,” he said. “The value in single stream is to increase the ease of recycling.” 

He said Oceanside Rubbish would pick up trash and recyclables in two different compactor trucks, although he said the trucks would look the same. 

“The truck that picks up trash will take the trash to Maine Energy,” he said. “The truck that picks up recyclables will take them to FCR Goodman.” 

Ekstedt said because the recycle pickup is not automated, it is up to households to determine what size recyclables container in necessary for their household size.