Why is the State of Maine launching this campaign?
Mainers continue to recycle more each year, but recycling has not kept pace with the amount of waste we generate. Even with recycling, we continue to buy and dispose of more and more tons of perfectly good recyclable material each year.
The State of Maine has established a goal to recycle 50% of our municipal solid waste. Our communities are recycling at varying degrees of success, resulting in a statewide average of 36%. It’s good, but we need to do better.
What is the purpose of the Maine Recycles Campaign?
Its mission is to promote and increase recycling across more than 300 municipalities and regions throughout the state. Since each region or town determines how they will collect their recyclables, programs vary from town to town, resulting in a variety of drop-off centers (close to 60% of the state) and curbside programs (approximately 40%).
Here are a few facts:
- In 2005, Maine residents generated 1.9+ million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW), or an average of 8 lbs/day/person. -Maine State Planning Office
- 87% of Mainers agree that recycling is a good thing to do. – Maine Survey conducted by Market Decisions, July 2006.
What is different about recycling today?
- Recycling technology has become more sophisticated, resulting in a variety of convenient, user-friendly programs
- Recycling is becoming easier than ever; a number of communities have done away with sorting and all recyclables can be placed in the same bin
- Recycling is viewed as resource management, not waste management
- Materials recovery- recycling of previously used building material- is the preferred option for managing all our residential, commercial, and industrial discards
- There are now over 300 public recycling programs serving over 98% of the population of Maine.
What you need to know
- Recycling provides valuable materials for manufacturers
- Recycling is easier than ever
- Recycling is essential to a sustainable future
- We have all sorts of useful information and materials to help local recycling programs educate their communities including posters, brochures, ads, articles, public service announcements and other promotional items that can be easily adapted and distributed for local use
- Our online toolkit has useful information for teachers as well