MAINE PUBLIC • September 9, 2024
One of Maine’s largest recyclers, Ecomaine, a community-owned corporation, plans to spend up to $25.2 million on state-of-the-art sorting equipment at a new recycling plant near its Portland headquarters. CEO Kevin Roche said the new automated sorting machines use imaging technology to separate mixed recycling such as paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and aluminum. The equipment will replace the company's current machines, installed around 2006. Back then, newsprint made up most of the recycling Ecomaine handled. With a boom in online shopping and home delivery, however, cardboard has become the top material it handles. The market for recyclables has rebounded from a slump after China stopped accepting most U.S. solid waste about seven years ago.