Recycling will return to greater Bangor next week for the first time since 2020 when a Hampden facility begins processing trash.
Municipal Waste Solutions, a waste processing facility in Hampden, has started bringing its sorting machines online. Next week will be the first time waste will go through the system, Kevin Hogan, the chief financial officer of Municipal Waste Solutions, said at a Wednesday meeting of the Municipal WasteHub, a partnership between 115 Maine cities and towns.
It will be the first time recycling has been available in greater Bangor for six years, a milestone following a tumultuous time for the area’s solid waste system. Reintroducing recycling will take some of the pressure off communities concerned about where their waste will go in the near future and answer residents’ calls for recycling.
Trash disposal has been an ongoing issue for Maine counties. It has been acute in Penobscot County, where the lack of recycling capacity has added to the amount of trash sent to Juniper Ridge Landfill, which is going through a controversial expansion plan because it is set to run out of room by 2028.
The Municipal Waste Solutions facility, which was reopened in 2025 by Municipal WasteHub after Coast Resources of Maine closed in 2020, will recycle at least 50% of all trash it receives this year. Waste from the member communities in Penobscot, Washington, Hancock, Waldo and Aroostook counties will be sent to Hampden where it will be sorted and recycled.
Residents of the communities will still be able to throw all their trash in the same bag because it will pass six sorting cameras that will identify what the material is and put it on the correct conveyor belt for sorting.
Municipal Waste Solutions had been waiting for parts to a material recovery facility that sorts the trash into different recyclable categories to be able to begin processing. Machines and equipment were delivered by the end of March and have been connected since then, Hogan said. Roughly 30 employees are working at the facility now.
“Waste is going to be hitting the system in the next week, and so once that happens, we’ll ramp up the system over the next few months with the expectation being able to handle all members’ waste through the facility over the next few months,” Hogan said.
Plans for other machinery, including bringing a massive anaerobic digester that breaks down organic waste and fiber products into natural gas online by the end of 2026, are still moving forward, Carroll said.
An exact date for when everything will be running is still unknown, but leaders of the effort expressed relief that waste will soon begin moving through the system.
“We’re finally here. Thank you guys for your patience. I know it took longer than everyone wanted, including us,” Hogan said at Wednesday’s meeting.
