The Scarborough Town Council is investigating the possibility of an automatic recycling and trash pickup system that is estimated to require $800,000 in start-up costs, and $350,000 in additional annual spending to operate.
Officials hope to raise the town’s recycling rate enough to reduce the annual operating costs to $150,000 more than the $1.5 million the town now spends on a contract to collect and dispose of trash from 6,200 homes around town.
The council will receive a report on the program from Public Works Director Mike Shaw and Recycling Coordinator Sarah Wojocoski at its Wednesday meeting, after the Current’s deadline.
Shaw is proposing an automatic trash pickup and recycling program in which a truck equipped with a robotic arm would stop at each residence and use the arm to pick up and empty the recycling and trash cans. Saco has a similar system for collecting trash and recycling, and South Portland collects just trash with an automated truck.
The program requires approximately $800,000 in upfront costs for trash cans designed to be picked up by the robotic arm. Town Manager Ron Owens said the cans would most likely be procured through some type of lease-purchase program, spreading the cost over 10 years.
Each residence would receive one trash can and one or two recycling cans, depending on whether Regional Waste Systems makes any changes to its recycling program.
Currently the organization has a two-stream system where fiber material is separated from the rest of the recyclables. However, if RWS moves to a single-stream system, which is now under consideration, then each household would only need one recycling container and Scarborough’s start-up costs would be lower.
The town would own the cans, which would be assigned to a particular property rather than a person.
While the town’s recycling is voluntary, last year residents recycled 19.5 percent of their total household waste, and this year that has increased by 1 percent, Shaw said.
Recycling saves the town money since the material is taken out of the trash stream. This decreases the amount of tipping costs the town pays, which now at $153 per ton.
The town has to pay to have the “silver bullet” recycling containers picked up, but does not have to pay for recycled materials delivered to RWS. Last year hauling the town’s six silver bullets cost $49,000, Shaw said. If trash and recycling were automated, the town would keep only one silver bullet, he said.
The state planning office has set a 50 percent recycling rate goal for municipalities and implementing the curbside recycling program would bring Scarborough closer to that goal.
“The way to get the (recycling) numbers up is to make it easier for people,” Shaw said.
Other ideas to increase the town’s recycling rates have been discussed. One was using pay-per-bag, but Shaw said there are some problems with the program such as people putting non-recyclable material into the recycling bins, which today does not occur very often.
It is convenient time to implement the new program, according to Owens: The town’s three-year contract with its trash collection company, BBI, is set to expire at the end of June.
If the council is to have enough time to solicit and evaluate bids for the new trash cans and a company to provide the service, the council must decide on the program within the next couple of months, Owens said.
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