New Recycling Initiatives Announced for Glass, Mixed-Paper, and Textiles
Fiberight CEO Craig Stuart-Paul welcomed more than two dozen municipal officials from Municipal Review Committee (MRC) communities on Monday, June 11th. for a tour of the new Fiberight facility currently under construction in Hampden.
After the walk-through, a Q & A session was held and several new recycling initiatives were announced previewing new options for single-sort, textiles, and glass recycling.
“First and foremost, Fiberight is a company focused on recycling,” Stuart-Paul remarked, “And as such, we are working in conjunction with local partners, such as the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, to provide services for our member communities that others are not.”
Fiberight’s Director of Community Services, Shelby Wright offered her perspective on the need to increase options for “single” or “zero-sort” recycling in the region. “I’ve visited over 35 transfer stations, and I am consistently hearing from our communities about the sharp increase in the costs associated with handling one-bin recyclables and mixed paper,” she commented.
“Fiberight’s technology may be able to reverse this trend by providing a domestic solution for mixed paper and we are looking at ways to advance this solution for our member communities,” Wright continued.
Also announced was a partnership with New Hampshire based
Apparel Impact
to provide a network of collection boxes through out the region for the collection and recycling of clothes, shoes, bedding, and other fabric-based goods that might otherwise be destined for a landfill.
Wright sited that over two dozen communities have expressed interest in the new program and
Apparel Impact
collection bins have begun to be placed in several locations such as China and Vassalboro among others.
Stuart-Paul detailed efforts to develop a regional glass processing facility within the Hampden site for hard to manage glass waste. “Until recently, most of Maine’s recovered glass was shipped to neighboring Massachusetts. But due to plant closures, the material is now being shipped to Connecticut triggering a sharp increase in the costs associated with recycling Maine’s glass," Stuart-Paul explained. “ As a result, we have discovered that source separated glass bottles are being landfilled, and in response, Fiberight is evaluating how to incorporate glass, as a separate upgrading process, into our Hampden facility.”
Monday’s tour was organized to provide more insight into Fiberight’s state of the art waste recovery process and to update local stakeholders on the progress of the construction phase of the first large-scale waste processing plant of its kind in the United States.
