The defunct Sandy River Recycling Association recently sent members the second and final check due to them after the building was auctioned off in September.

The association shut down in June 2014 after 25 years, and its officers Monday announced that the 14 towns that were members as of January 2014 have received a total of $233,389. Its equipment was auctioned off earlier in the year.

Ron Slater, manager of the Sandy River Recycling Association, loads a 1-ton pallet of cardboard on to the scale in the storage area in Farmington in 2013. The association closed down in June 2014 and 14 member towns received a final check from sale of the building recently. Staff file photo by Michael G. Seamans

Richard Doughty, treasurer of the group, oversaw the sale of the equipment, building and land over the course of 15 months, the release said.

Each town got paid “based on a formula that took into consideration what they paid for the transport and processing their recyclables during SRRA’s last five years,” Doughty said in the release.

Member towns at the time it announced its dissolution were Carrabassett Valley, Carthage, Chesterville, Coplin Plantation, Dallas Plantation, Eustis, Farmington, Industry, Mercer, New Vineyard, Rangeley, Rangeley Plantation, Sandy River Plantation, Sidney, Strong, Temple and Weld.

“The disbursements were wide-ranging,” he said.

For instance, according to the release, Farmington received $46,732 — 20 percent of the total disbursed — while New Vineyard received $5,108, 2.2 percent of the total.

“Towns that withdrew from the SRRA before January 2014 did not receive any of the residual assets,” he said.

Alan Archibald of Archie’s Inc. of Mexico, which recycles materials from many of the association’s former members, was the winning bidder at $70,000.

At its peak in 2003, the association had 21 member towns, according to the release. It was founded in 1990 as a nonprofit corporation. In 1991 the Maine Waste Management Agency provided $150,000 with members providing a $50,000 match to cover a proposed $200,000 budget that included a roll-off truck, roll-off containers and a forklift. In its 25-year history, SRRA recycled some 24,000 tons of material, the release said.

Jo Josephson, former president of SRRA, said in the association’s last annual report to the towns, “We are proud to have been a public service pioneer in this industry.

“Keep on recycling. It is the right thing to do.”

When SRRA announced it was closing, the nonprofit organization that serves Franklin County and some nearby towns said it was hurt by competition from the no-sort recycling industry and from increased costs associated with recycling. When Farmington, its largest member, pulled out in January 2014, it was the final blow for the association, organizers said.

The association at the time increased its fees overall by 31 percent after running out of reserves to subsidize the costs to the towns.

“When we ran out of that reserve last year, we started slashing our budget, laying off people and raising our prices. We let them know we had to charge the true cost of our service,” Josephson said at the time.

Since its dissolution, Farmington has taken over its composting area and formed the Farmington Compost Cooperative with the University of Maine at Farmington. The compost cooperative is the first collaborative composting project in the state to involve a municipal government, a university and the public, Mark King, an environmental specialist from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said in September.

Related Stories