BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 10, 2020
Shredded plastic from Northern Ireland that was destined to be burned at an Orrington waste-to-electricity plant has begun washing up on the shores of Sears Island. The tiny pieces of brightly covered plastic debris littered the high-tide line along more than half a mile of the northwest corner of the island. Bad weather delayed and complicated the offloading. Two of the bales, which weighed about 3,000 pounds apiece, broke away, fell into the water and sank. A crew from Clean Harbors Environmental in Hampden on Wednesday began the painstaking work of separating the plastic from the half-frozen seaweed and bagging it up for removal. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is conducting an investigation.