So you can't be bothered to separate paper, cardboard, glass, cans, plastics, and metal from your regular trash?

Think $2,000 every other day.

That's what it costs Wiscasset to cart off what goes into "the hopper" at the Wiscasset transfer and recycling station. The stuff that isn't recycled has to be trucked off to Orrington, and Wiscasset taxpayers are paying for the driver, the maintenance on the truck, the fuel for the truck, plus $85 per ton to dump it.

Certified and registered Garbologist and Transfer Station Superintendent Woodie Freeman hopes Wiscasset residents will start paying more attention to what they throw into the general waste stream.

"Wiscasset is only recycling 35 percent of its waste - down from 50 percent a few years ago."

Freeman isn't the only one who's down in the dumps about the situation. Next week, November 8 - 15 is Maine Recycles Week, a chance for everyone to start paying more attention to what they're tossing into the trash.

"Please help us make Maine Recycles Week a success," Freeman says.

"We control what comes to our transfer station by what we buy, use, and reuse. Our first effort is to reduce our stuff in the hopper. Anything that can be diverted from the hopper to the recycling side of our station saves both resources and money."

Just to give you an idea about what stuff does get recycled, Freeman compiled these figures - the transfer station recycles, per week:

• 1.3 tons cardboard

• 1.6 tons newspapers, magazines

• .6 tons mixed paper

• .1 tons cans

• 1.5 tons metal

• .1 ton plastic

• .5 ton leaves/yard waste

• .4 ton household goods directly reused

• .96 tons tires

And, the transfer station recycles the following materials, per year: 37 tons of TVs and computers; 12,000 linear feet of fluorescent lamps; 34 pounds of mercury-containing devices; 2,500 gallons of waste oil (re-used to heat the transfer station building); and 4,500 pound of lead acid batteries.

The Maine state Planning Office has asked every town and city to recycle at least 50 percent of their trash.

For more information about how towns, businesses, and individuals can help recycle, log on to www.recyclemaine.com/mrw.