AUBURN — The Mid-Maine Waste Action Corporation has been in existence for 25 years yet many area residents and businesses are not clear about who they are, what they do and why it’s so beneficial to society and the environment. The Board of Directors decided to sponsor a renaming contest, open to all school districts in their service territory, to help find a new name to better describe the MMWAC mission.

The winning entry was submitted by Donna Morton’s fourth-grade class at Manchester School, RSU No. 14 Windham/Raymond. The students’ winning entry is “Green Energy Maine,” or “G.E.M.”

MMWAC launched the contest during recent Earth Day celebrations. Teacher Morton explained how the students have included the work involved in the contest as part of their environmental studies which included hands-on recycling within the classroom. The class came up with several possible entries and voted on which name to submit as their entry. After learning they had won they then voted to recommend that the school purchase an iPad for the class.

MMWAC processes much of the residential and commercial solid waste generated in the region and converts that trash into clean, renewable energy at the Auburn facility. This process causes a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, save huge amounts of valuable landfill space, offset the use of fossil fuels, recovers energy from society’s post-recyclable solid waste, and also recovers and recycles significant quantities of materials.

MMWAC is a quasi-municipal facility which is jointly owned by 12 municipalities in the region, including Auburn, Bowdoin, Buckfield, Lovell, Minot, Monmouth, New Gloucester, Poland, Raymond, Sumner, Sweden and Wales. The plant also services the solid waste disposal needs of many other towns and businesses in this area.