HAMPDEN (NEWS CENTER Maine) – We’re getting an inside look at the future of recycling in our local communities.
The Fiberight facility in Hampden is looking to revolutionize the way Maine deals with its trash, by taking everything you dispose of in front of your homes and making it reusable.
Fiberight invited the media into their facility for a hard hat tour Tuesday, to show the place where more than 120 communities will be sending their trash in just a short time.
“What you saw here was next-generation recycling,” said Fiberight CEO, Craig Stuart-Paul.
Through the plant’s back doors, the waste collected from local homes will come through to be sorted, separated, pulped, and converted into recyclable, reusable materials.
Everything that is thrown away gets recycled, not just the materials that usually come to mind like plastic and paper. Food waste included.
“This is the state of the art recycling facility in the country today,” added Stuart-Paul.
Hampden’s Fiberight facility is putting Maine on the map when it comes to innovation and conservation, according to Stuart-Paul, who personally toured the facility with the media Tuesday.
“Even after we pulp it, we can get down to sorting things as small as Keurig coffee cups, so we bring new opportunities for recycling that really have not been seen before,” said Stuart-Paul.
Everything goes through a one of a kind machine, breaking down the trash with the finished product being a fiber available for compost or used in the production of energy.
Faced with rising costs after China virtually shut its doors to overseas recycling, towns like Holden have had to make difficult decisions when it comes to recycling.
“Faced with the fact that they’re paying double what it costs to dispose of it, to recycle it, they’ve elected to dispose of it,” said Stuart-Paul.
Hoping Fiberight can soon be a solution.
“The Fiberight facility is talking they may have potential for recycling options for us but unfortunately it’s not up and running yet,” said Holden Town Manager, Benjamin Breadmore. “When the time comes and Fiberight goes online, [Holden’s trash] will be taken to Hampden to the new facility.”
The Fiberight process is nearly all automated, but certain parts are manual.
On top of literally taking the trash off our hands, Fiberight will be creating 45 local jobs when construction is complete, and it is up and running.
Meantime, MRC is picking up the slack, or in this case, the trash, through March 31, 2019, when Fiberight is hoping to be able to offer its services to nearly all of those 120 communities.