BAR HARBOR, March 4, 2025 - A two-family house on School Street pays the same for municipal garbage disposal as a restaurant on Main Street which generates exponentially higher volume.
FYI, several restaurants in Bar Harbor pay for Agri-cycle (https://www.agricycleenergy.com/) to pickup their food waste. It doesn't end up in the municipal solid waste. Agri-cycle has an anaerobic digester to turn the food waste into Biogas. Hannaford, Bar Harbor, Inn, and Jackson Lab do as well.
The Innovative plant will have several anaerobic digesters and will need organic waste to feed those to make the biogas to feed into the Bangor Gas pipeline. Weight of organic waste is such a huge part of the trash disposal tipping fee costs but would cut towns' costs if not included with trash. Not having that organic waste might, unfortunately, be the difference between success and failure of the Innovative plant. A conundrum, indeed.
Since many of the users of Agri-cycle have been using them for years, the calculations that IRR has made for their input likely doesn't include those businesses. I am sure there will still be enough food waste coming from Bar Harbor to feed their digester. But it is a double-edged sword for sure.
Chickadee Compost in Surry also picks up food waste for a fee and turns it into a great soil amendment.
I understand that Bar Harbor is locked into a contract with MRC for waste disposal, but was there no escape clause in the event that the contractor goes out-of-business? A poor business decision or am I missing something?
For the food waste component, I believe that any town can petition MRC to be excluded from the food waste portion, but I am not sure what that involves. I think the MRC contract only excludes a municipally funded compost facility. Any individual or business can contract with one. That's how the Bar Harbor Garden Club compost program with Chickadee Compost is allowed to run without conflicting with the MRC.
This is an excellent presentation of the waste issues which affect all MDI towns and the surrounding islands, not just Bar Harbor, which has chosen not to be an ADD (Acadia Disposal District) member. As you know, Lincoln, ADD has been discussing and struggling with this issue for many months. The Trenton Solid Waste Committee has also been discussing ways to alleviate the huge tax burden for its taxpayers that solid waste represents. The Innovative plant in Hampden will go a long way toward minimizing those costs but certainly isn't the total answer. We all need to be more mindful of just how much we purchase and dispose of. Pay-as-you-throw and having large commercial users pay a fee for their waste disposal makes the most sense.
I agree, Elizabeth. The restaurant where worked for 18 years used Agri-cycle for a couple of years but no longer does, I have been told. I'm glad to hear that others still are.
FYI, several restaurants in Bar Harbor pay for Agri-cycle (https://www.agricycleenergy.com/) to pickup their food waste. It doesn't end up in the municipal solid waste. Agri-cycle has an anaerobic digester to turn the food waste into Biogas. Hannaford, Bar Harbor, Inn, and Jackson Lab do as well.
The Innovative plant will have several anaerobic digesters and will need organic waste to feed those to make the biogas to feed into the Bangor Gas pipeline. Weight of organic waste is such a huge part of the trash disposal tipping fee costs but would cut towns' costs if not included with trash. Not having that organic waste might, unfortunately, be the difference between success and failure of the Innovative plant. A conundrum, indeed.
Since many of the users of Agri-cycle have been using them for years, the calculations that IRR has made for their input likely doesn't include those businesses. I am sure there will still be enough food waste coming from Bar Harbor to feed their digester. But it is a double-edged sword for sure.
Chickadee Compost in Surry also picks up food waste for a fee and turns it into a great soil amendment.
I understand that Bar Harbor is locked into a contract with MRC for waste disposal, but was there no escape clause in the event that the contractor goes out-of-business? A poor business decision or am I missing something?
For the food waste component, I believe that any town can petition MRC to be excluded from the food waste portion, but I am not sure what that involves. I think the MRC contract only excludes a municipally funded compost facility. Any individual or business can contract with one. That's how the Bar Harbor Garden Club compost program with Chickadee Compost is allowed to run without conflicting with the MRC.
This is an excellent presentation of the waste issues which affect all MDI towns and the surrounding islands, not just Bar Harbor, which has chosen not to be an ADD (Acadia Disposal District) member. As you know, Lincoln, ADD has been discussing and struggling with this issue for many months. The Trenton Solid Waste Committee has also been discussing ways to alleviate the huge tax burden for its taxpayers that solid waste represents. The Innovative plant in Hampden will go a long way toward minimizing those costs but certainly isn't the total answer. We all need to be more mindful of just how much we purchase and dispose of. Pay-as-you-throw and having large commercial users pay a fee for their waste disposal makes the most sense.
I agree, Elizabeth. The restaurant where worked for 18 years used Agri-cycle for a couple of years but no longer does, I have been told. I'm glad to hear that others still are.