NORWAY — Recycling would continue as usual in Norway and Paris and no jobs would be lost if a 15-town coalition created to increase recycling dissolves, according to Selectman Warren Sessions Jr.

Sessions serves as general manager of both the Oxford County Regional Recycling Corp. and Norway-Paris Solid Waste.

“Nothing is going to change for Norway and Paris residents,” even voters dissolve the corporation at the polls Nov. 8, Sessions said at a public hearing on the ballot question Thursday.

He said the facility would continue to accept compost and cooking oil. 

On July 13, 12 of the 15 municipalities involved in the corporation voted to dissolve it.

Member towns are Norway and Paris, Otisfield, Bethel, Hanover, Denmark, Greenwood, Woodstock, Milton Township, Hebron, Newry, Livermore, Gilead, Lincoln Plantation and Upton.

“For 27 years, the leaders from our towns had great foresight in combining solid waste and recycling,” said Town Manager David Holt. 

Holt said many towns have adopted single-stream recycling.

“That has left the remaining towns in a place where the Oxford County Regional Recycling Corp. has become less economically viable,” he said.

Sessions said the Norway-Paris Solid Waste board agreed to continue doing multi-sort recycling for Norway and Paris.

“They’ve agreed to keep the same people, so nobody loses their jobs,” he said. “Unless we told them about it, the citizens wouldn’t notice the difference.”

Sessions said it would not be prudent for Norway and Paris to participate in single-stream recycling.

“It would be quite costly to create a facility that could accommodate single-stream recycling for everyone in town,” Sessions said, adding that other towns that have switched are “still losing money.”

“The single-stream people tried luring towns in by keeping a zero tipping fee,” Sessions said, referring to a fee charged to people dropping off waste, which offsets the operation and maintenance of the facility.

“I heard that the fee was up to $25 a ton, and that they’re thinking it’s going to go up again,” Sessions said. “Those towns still seem to be happy, but with us, there would be a big upfront cost to switch, because we would need to build a new facility.”

[email protected]