Bangor officials outline timeline, private investment and public-education needs for reopened Municipal Waste Hub

Aaron Hootery, Public Works Director, told the Bangor City Infrastructure Committee Monday that the regional facility formerly called the MRC has been rebranded as the Municipal Waste Hub and is again accepting material at the reopened Hamden site.

Hootery said the Municipal Waste Hub is operating as a hub for 15 member communities that together represent about 200,000 people; Bangor supplies roughly 25% of the hub’s annual waste. He said the privately funded reopening — led by Innovative Resource Recovery in a 90/10 ownership partnership through a company called Municipal Waste Solutions (MWS) — aims to pull saleable commodities and organics out of incoming loads, reduce landfill disposal and produce renewable natural gas from organics.

The Municipal Waste Hub’s services and investment matter because they affect Bangor’s disposal costs, local waste-handling operations and the city’s ability to meet state diversion targets. Committee members were briefed on the hub’s equipment upgrades, oncoming anaerobic digesters and a phased timeline for bringing all member communities into full processing.

Hootery summarized recent activity at the Hamden site and explained the rebrand: "The rebrand really was meant to... reflect that hub-and-spoke model that the state talks about and the services that we provide." He said the material-recovery facility (MRF) infrastructure from the site’s prior operator (Fiberight) remains largely in place and is being upgraded with new optical sorters, bag-openers and other equipment to increase commodity recovery.

Officials described the facility’s processing chain: incoming mixed waste is shredded and screened; recyclables and saleable commodities are removed; organics will be separated and routed to anaerobic digesters. Hootery and other staff said the large plug-style digesters being procured from Europe should arrive in early 2026 and be online by mid‑2026, at which point the hub will begin digesting organics to produce renewable natural gas.

Private investment figures were given in committee: Innovative Resource Recovery has committed about $20 million to the project and has deployed roughly $10 million so far, with another about $8 million directed to improvements at the MRF. Committee members were told the overall plant was originally estimated at about $85,000,000 and that the city participates as a member-owner with representation on the hub board.

Staff cautioned that much of the incoming waste is still destined for landfill early in ramp-up and that the hub is performing waste-characterization studies to identify problematic materials. Hootery and Michael Carroll, Executive Director of the Municipal Waste Hub, said unacceptable items have been showing up in side-load 96‑gallon carts — including tires and large propane cylinders — which the MRF equipment cannot safely process. Carroll said this slows operations and can damage machinery.

Committee members and staff said public education will be critical to prevent unsuitable items from entering the MRF. Councilors supported social-media outreach and facility tours to show residents how material separation and the new equipment work. Hootery said the hub has a video in production and that staff plan targeted education about unacceptable items and proper disposal options.

On regulatory oversight, staff said the hub and its member communities must meet Maine Department of Environmental Protection (Maine DEP) permit requirements, including a 50 percent diversion target that will be audited by the state agency.

Timeline and next steps described to the committee include: continued waste characterization and partial acceptance of loads now; a goal of processing material from all 15 member communities by fourth quarter 2025; and installation and commissioning of the large anaerobic digesters in early to mid‑2026.

Committee members asked how Bangor’s ongoing collection contract and tip fees interact with the hub. Hootery said Bangor’s curbside collection contract is separate and that membership in the hub lowers per‑ton disposal fees by leveraging the combined volume of 15 communities.

The presentation closed with committee support for stepped public outreach and a request for staff to continue reporting progress on equipment commissioning, waste characterization results and timeline milestones.