Municipal Review Committee announced potential buyer for Hampden s waste-to-energy facility
Delta Thermo Energy was announced as the potential buyer of the Hampden-based waste-to-energy facility, operated by Fiberight until it suspended operations last May. Author: Sam Rogers (NEWS CENTER Maine) Published: 6:44 PM EST January 19, 2021 Updated: 7:06 PM EST January 19, 2021
HAMPDEN, Maine When the Fiberight facility opened in Hampden last May, there was excitement. The plant promoted a one-bin, all-in motto as residents of more than 100 cities and towns in Maine could leave their trash and recycling in the same container and the facility would do the rest.
It was a promise the Municipal Review Committee (MRC) made to its members but wasn t kept very long. The MRC oversees the waste distribution of 115 municipalities in northern and eastern Maine and was sending all that waste to Hampden when the facility opened in 2019.
The Municipal Review Committee, which represents the solid waste interests of 115 Maine municipalities, held a virtual town hall meeting Tuesday to announce Delta Thermo Energy Inc. as the prospective buyer for the Hampden plant.
Delta Thermo Energy will be the new owner of Coastal Resources of Maine, the waste-to-biofuel facility in Hampden that has had a dramatic, if short, history since opening in April 2019. The facility closed in May of 2019 and was subsequently placed in receivership. Headquartered in Feasterville-Trevose, Pa., Delta Thermo Energy has a solid track record in waste facilities. The company operates facilities in South Korea, Germany, Japan, Romania, Russia, South Africa and Singapore, as well as piloting programs in the United States.
MDI acts against pandemic plastic pollution
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND Almost two months ago, 8,000 bales of plastic waste, weighing nearly 10,000 tons, set sail on the Atlantic aboard a Northern Ireland cargo ship, the Sider London. Two of the bales fell into Penobscot Bay during offloading operations at the Sprague Energy Terminal in Searsport. Remnants of plastic from the incident drifted along the shores of Sears Island last month. The plastic waste was bound for Orrington, the home of Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. (PERC), to be burned and processed into energy.
Material Research President Jim Vallette used this recent occurrence to explain the complexities of Maine’s plastic waste system at last week’s virtual meeting hosted by Indivisible MDI. Vallette and others from his Southwest Harbor-based research organization have been following plastic for over 30 years. “It was really a shock to see waste come into the U.S. because waste follows the path of leas