FARMINGTON — The Board of Selectmen will consider options for recycling when they meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 10, at the Municipal Building.

At their last meeting, representatives from Sandy River Recycling Association presented their new plan of operation, one accepted by member town representatives at the association’s annual meeting in November.

The board also has two options to consider in a proposal submitted by Alan Archibald, owner of Archie’s Inc., which runs J & J Disposal at 135 Poverty Lane in Farmington.

Sandy River, owned by member towns and governed by their representatives, has collected, baled and sold the town’s recyclables for the past 23 years.

Although the demand for recyclables diminished after the economy took a downturn in 2008, the association kept the price per ton for collection and processing down by subsidizing the cost, Jo Josephson, former association president previously said.

In 2012, they decided they could no longer do that and had to look at the real costs of operation, she said. The costs are dependent on how much tonnage the town produces and the distance for pickup from the facility in Farmington.

Farmington voters approved an increase — a total of $14,816 for 2013 compared to $10,934 for 2012 — for Sandy River Recycling at last March’s town meeting. The cost was based on about 187 tons of recyclable materials collected in 2012, at a processing rate of $79.15 per ton. 

After some member towns chose to withdraw and adopt single-sort recycling, Sandy River devised a new plan for future operation that provides options for member towns.

The options include continuing to collect, bale and recycle as they have done, or adopting an assisted single-sort system, where the association collects, compacts and transports recyclables to a single-sort facility. A third option for each town is to have the association negotiate lower tipping fees and provide transportation for the town’s single-sort recyclables.

Selectmen listened and postponed the discussion until their December meeting. It also provided time to consider and compare a proposal from Archibald.

Archibald proposes his company take over recycling from Sandy River Recycling.  Under a second option in the proposal, he would take over operation of the town’s Recycling Center over a five-year period.

He proposes to bring the operating cost for the center — voters approved $71,197 for the transfer station operation in 2013 — down to zero over the next five years, during which time he would receive town subsidies.

In other business, the board will consider transferring the Department of Environmental Protection license for the composting facility from the Sandy River Recycling Association to the town.

Selectmen will also consider eliminating outside agency funding requests from the 2014 budget and town meeting warrant.

abryant@sunjournal.com