Fate of a Lewiston recycling firm may rest on how legislators deal with a controversial bill

SUN JOURNAL • December 8, 2021

Environmentalists are pushing a bill, first discussed last spring, to limit the construction debris hauled into Maine that eventually finds its way to the state-owned Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town. Almost a third of the material dumped in the landfill comes from other states, mostly Massachusetts, and much of it flows through ReSource Waste Services in Lewiston, a facility that sorts through construction and demolition debris to separate out recyclable material. What it can’t reuse is trucked to the Old Town landfill. The Natural Resources Council of Maine said major legal changes are needed “to prevent Maine from being New England’s dumping ground” and to end the “massive environmental injustice” to landfill neighbors that include the nearby Penobscot Nation.