COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE for Cranberry lsles SOLID WASTE RECYCLING POSSIBILITY this SUMMER! First, in case everyone is not We have been in touch with the aware of what happens to the Cran- B.A.R. Company of Oxford, ME, who berry Islands' trash, here is a plans to begin a "doorstep pickup" brief account of its path after service for recyclables in July. leaving your front yard. The They will provide containers, pick trash in grain bags go through at them up, and pay a certain amount least four steps before arriving per ton for the material. We can at destination: begin with glass, steel and alum- 1. The islands' contractor (Terry inum. The possibility also exists Johnson this year) picks up bags for plastics and newspaper. Barrels at roadside, transfers them to will be placed on Cranberry at the boat or barge and boats them to town garage, and on Islesford at the Southwest Harbor. town gravel pit. We can also look 2. He is met by Daigle, Inc., a into placing some on the Sutton Island town dock. private trash hauler, who carts the bags to E.M.R., Inc. 's South- Because no money has been appro- west Harbor transfer station. priated for this by the Town, volun- 3. E.M.R. Inc. mixes our bage with teers with boats are needed to cart the material to a mainland dock. The M.D.I.'s unsorted trash and trans- ports it to PERC (Penobscot Energy person delivering may keep the money Recovery Company) which burns what payed for recycled goods. If enough it can, attaches fees to what it volunteer, each may only have to make one run. The success of this pilot can't and 4. sends the rest to a landfill. effort will help determine policy to Most of our trash is not usable to be drawn up for next March's Town PERC. Therefore, fees are attach- Meeting. ed to most of it, but by now our Be on the lookout for a possible tonnage is not tracable to us. construction debris pickup service! We incur extra costs for every step taken before our trash arriv- es at destination, one that is BEWARE OF BURNING PLASTIC! quickly running out of space. Therefore, the Solid Waste Com- As noted in the Cranberry Isles mittee has been encouraging people Trash Pickup Guidelines, all plastic to reduce the trash they generate refuse is to be disposed of in the (last summer's shopping guide) and grain bags and not incinerated. Why? looking into more direct routes f There are serious hazards associated for our trash. To us, recycling with the incéneration of plastics. looks like a good option: one When we burn plastics, we release tox- that saves steps after it leaves ic and corrosive gases (Chlorine gas our dooryard, and one that could is created when PVC is burned). The possibly pay us for items recycled. ash that results from incineration Recycling will require a few more contains toxic heavy metals (parti- steps taken by householders, but cularly, cadmium and lead which are we hope that anyone wishing to found in plastic pigments and stabi- save money and preserve our dwind- lizers) and is considered a "special ling resources would enjoy making waste by the DEP. They require it to an effort to recycle. be landfilled in a 'secured landfill site" The ash should never be disposed Interested in joining a food co-op- of in compost, gardens, or near a water source. If the heavy metals erative for buying in bulk? A sign- un sheet will be posted at the June found in the ash are ingested in