Solid Waste Information for Trenton, Maine

New Recycling Brochure (PDF) *Revised January 2012

Please read the above brochure for the most up-to-date recycling information.

The recycling dumpsters are now on Salty Sand Way, just east of the Town Office. The location is open 20 hours per week, with an attendant to help you. The open hours are posted on the large sign at the entrance to Salty Sand Way, and may change from time to time as may be needed.
Please note: plastic bags are not accepted by Trenton recycling. Put them in the trash or take them to Shaw’s, Hannaford’s or Trenton Market for recycling.

Volunteers are invited to work with the Solid Waste Committee.

WHERE DOES OUR RECYCLING AND OUR TRASH GO?

The Town of Trenton currently does not offer trash removal services from homes or businesses. Trash (also called Municipal Solid Waste) gets taken to the transfer station in Southwest Harbor, called Eastern Maine Recycling, or EMR, either by individual Trenton residents or by haulers they hire. We pay EMR $135 per ton to accept it, plus a substantial yearly access fee. From there it is hauled to Penobscot Energy Recovery Company (PERC) in Orrington, where it gets burned in their incinerator to make electricity that gets sold to Bangor Hydro. They also pull out some metals to sell. The 10% of the waste that will not burn (ash etc.) is taken to the Juniper Ridge landfill in Old Town.

Things that you recycle instead of throwing them in the trash go to the Ellsworth recycling facility. You can take them there yourself, or you can deposit them in the Town’s recycling dumpsters on Salty Sand Way, from where the Town has them trucked to Ellsworth. Not only do we avoid paying $135 per ton to EMR, but Ellsworth sells them and returns 75% of the money to the Acadia Disposal District, of which Trenton is a member, and our share comes back to us. When recycling materials are sold they are used to make new materials such as cardboard boxes and plastic items. By recycling we earn money, instead of spending it. Download this brochure to see what you should put where in the recycling dumpsters. In the past two years we in Trenton have more than doubled our recycling percentage, but we need to double it again.

To download a flow-chart of solid waste categories, click here

Items that are not accepted in the recycling facility but also should not be put into regular trash are collected yearly at special events – see the page on hazardous and “universal” waste.

Here is a link to the Acadia Disposal District: http://acadiadisposaldistrict.org/
Here is a link to EMR: http://easternmainerecycling.com/
Here is information about PERC: http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/licensing/TitleVlicenses/a355ai.pdf
Here is information about Juniper Ridge: http://www.maine.gov/spo/recycle/juniper/index.htm
Here is information about the Ellsworth recycling facility: http://cityofellsworthme.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=188&Itemid=252