Lewiston, Maine, C&D recycling plant investing $1.5M in upgrades

The former ReEnergy Lewiston plant on Alfred Plourde Parkway is investing more than $1.5 million new upgrades to increase the recycling and reuse rate of the construction and demolition debris broken down there, reports Yahoo News.

Sarah Boggess, vice president of external affairs at ReEnergy Holdings LLC, which renamed the local facility ReSource Waste Services of Lewiston last September, said that plant processed 190,000 tons of C&D waste in 2020 and 236,000 tons in 2019.

With the new investment in an additional processing line, which includes new magnets to increase ferrous metal recovery and a de-stoner to increase asphalt, brick and concrete recovery, the facility will go from a recycling, recovery and beneficial reuse rate of 60 percent to roughly 72 percent, according to a press release.

Reused material heads to uses including fuel for electricity generation and medium-density fiberboard manufacturing.

Material that isn't reused is disposed of in the state-owned Juniper Ridge landfill in Old Town, which some environmental groups have taken issue with.

The plant employs almost 40 people in Lewiston. The investment and process upgrades, which are related to recycling goals passed by the legislature in March 2020, according to the release, will take effect in late 2021 or early 2022.