Recycling in Maine

Maine adopted a goal in 1989 to recycle 50% of its waste, but the state has never reached that benchmark and recycling rates have declined in recent years. At the same time, per‑capita waste disposal is increasing, landfills are nearing capacity, and municipal recycling programs face escalating costs.

What Can Be Recycled in Maine

Every municipality manages its own recycling programs, and what can be recycled locally varies widely depending on each municipality’s resources and approach. Contact your local town office or waste hauler to learn more about what can be recycled at your transfer station or in your bins.

• If your community is served by Aroostook Waste Solutions, you can visit their website to learn more about what can be recycled in the igloos.
• If your community is served by Ecomaine, you can visit their website to learn more about recycling in their service area.

Maine’s Bottle Bill

Maine’s Bottle Bill—formally known as the Returnable Beverage Container Law—is the state’s oldest and most successful recycling and litter‑reduction policy. Established in 1978, the program created a deposit‑return system that places a refundable deposit on many beverage containers, incentivizing consumers to return them for recycling.

Under the Bottle Bill, beverage manufacturers and distributors collect a deposit on each eligible container sold in Maine, retailers pass that charge to consumers, and consumers get their money back when containers are returned to a redemption center or participating retailer.

Redemption centers are the backbone of Maine’s Bottle Bill system. These small and medium‑sized businesses collect containers, refund deposits to consumers, and return materials to distributors for recycling. Their only direct source of revenue from the program is a handling fee paid by beverage manufacturers and distributors for each container processed.

Residents can also use a self-service kiosk such as the CLYNK system located at Hannaford grocery stores across the state. 

Covered containers include glass, metal, and plastic beverage containers up to four liters. Certain products—such as milk, dairy products, Maine‑produced apple cider and blueberry juice, broths, and frozen drink products—are exempt.

Solutions for More Effective Recycling

NRCM supports a range of product stewardship and waste reduction policies designed to make recycling more effective and less costly for municipalities and residents. These include:

• Bans on especially harmful or hard‑to‑recycle materials (such as single‑use plastic bags and foam food containers).
• Financial incentives to reduce waste and increase recycling, including pay‑as‑you‑throw systems.
• Clear labeling and minimum recycled‑content requirements to strengthen recycling markets.
• Strong Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws that shift financial and operational responsibility from municipalities to producers.

Maine already has one of the most comprehensive sets of product stewardship laws in the country, covering items such as beverage containers, electronic waste, paint, batteries, mercury‑containing devices, and unused pharmaceuticals. These programs have saved taxpayer money, reduced toxic pollution, and kept hard‑to‑manage materials out of landfills and incinerators. The implementation of EPR for packaging represents a pivotal opportunity to modernize recycling in Maine and serve as a national example of effective reform.

Recycling remains an important tool for reducing waste and protecting Maine’s environment and public health—but incremental fixes are not enough. Strong, enforceable policies that hold producers accountable, stabilize municipal recycling programs, and reduce waste at the source are necessary to meet Maine’s recycling goals and build a more sustainable materials management system.