Ellsworth Recycling: What is and what is NOT Acceptable
How Ellsworth Sells Recyclables: Currently Ellsworth is a member of the Maine Resource Recovery Association (MRRA) which helps them manage and identify a market to sell their recyclables, including the ones we send them. Through MRRA they are able to sell the materials in a manner that helps pay for their, and our, recycling program. BUT currently there is a very limited demand for recycled items, here in the U.S. and Abroad. Should things change in the future, Ellsworth will look into again accepting more types of recyclable items.
Our agreement with Ellsworth has always been to send them sorted, acceptable materials. If materials that are not acceptable are put in the respective containers, the entire load in that container faces the risk of being rejected. If rejected, we will not receive any revenue for any of the load and we will have to pay for it as trash at a current tipping fee of $110 per ton. To date, the recycling center staff has been removing unacceptable material from some loads when they have time rather than rejecting the load. This is ending. They do not have the staffing to continue to do this and, as noted above, our agreement is for sorted acceptable materials.
In addition, containers like cans and plastic bottles and jugs must be clean of the materials that came in them. They must be rinsed clean. With such a worldwide abundance of recyclables, the companies that buy the materials for processing can be very fussy. If there are too many unclean containers in a load, the entire load can be rejected.
Following are lists of what is and what is not acceptable for recycling at the Ellsworth recycling center under the ADD recycling agreement with them. If an item is NOT on the Acceptable list, it cannot be recycled with Ellsworth. Glass bottles and glass jars are not accepted.
In addition, Click here to go to short video put together by Ellsworth describing the recycling changes.