Greater Portland communities will share a $1 million rebate from ecomaine, the regional waste incinerator and recycling cooperative.
Ecomaine announced the one-time rebate Tuesday morning and said it would set aside an additional $500,000 on surplus revenue to offset any future downturn in the recycling market.
“We ended the recently closed fiscal year in a strong position,” ecomaine Board of Directors Chairman Jim Gailey said in the news release.
The board voted Oct. 17 to provide a one-time refund, which will be split among the 20 ecomaine owner communities based on the average tons of waste received by each community. The rebates will be sent out before the end of the month. Portland will received $199,120, the largest share of the refund, while most communities will receive between $18,000 and $50,000 each.
Last year, the Board approved a resolution eliminating assessment fees and creating a revenue sharing arrangement. In good years, dividends are paid; in down years, communities might be called on to make up the shortfall.
Ecomaine’s general manager, Kevin Roche, said the cooperative did well in two key categories: The price of electricity generated and sold by the waste incinerator was up by 27 percent over the previous year, and the volume of recycled materials brought to ecomaine was up by 22 percent over the same period. The ecomaine recycling plant saw a record year, Roche said, processing almost 42,000 tons of material that has varying levels of market value.
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