Westport Island residents will be introduced to single steam recycling at their annual town meeting June 21.

Wiscasset Transfer Station Supervisor Woody Freeman, and Karen McNaughton, from Pine Tree Waste, attended the weekly selectmen's meeting to announce that as of July 1, single steam recycling will be available at the Wiscasset Transfer Station.

"Instead of 11 different containers for recycling, there will be only one container," Freeman told the selectmen.

Single steam recycling allows residents to dump their plastics, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, metal, paper, cardboard, brown paper bags, food containers, glass bottles and jars, aluminum plates and trays, aluminum foil, cans, steel, and aluminum into a single container. The commodities no longer need to be sorted.

According to McNaughton, Pine Tree Waste, a division of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. now owns and operates a sorting facility in Auburn, Mass. which uses shredders, screens, optical scanners, blowers, magnets and manual labor to sort the commodities.

Since Westport Island contracts with the town of Wiscasset for refuse disposal, the selectmen are planning to show a DVD of the process at the town meeting this month.

Freeman told the selectmen that Pine Tree Waste will haul the single steam recycling free of charge.

McNaughton said her company will make their money on the recyclables once they are sorted.

The objective to offering the single steam recycling program is to make it easier to recycle and to encourage more people to recycle which will cut down on the amount of waste going into the landfills.

Items not included in the single steam recycling include: plastic bags, windows, light bulbs, dishes, forma packaging and Styrofoam, hazardous material, universal waste, and recyclables containing food.

Further information on the single steam recycling program will be available at the town office. There was some discussion by the selectmen that flyers may be put in the town tax bills when they are sent out this fall.

Other business on the selectmen's agenda was to send a letter to Attorney Samuel Cohen in support of the Human Resource Committee (HRC) becoming a 501(c)(3) corporation as a charitable and benevolent not for profit organization.

"The HRC has a priority to maintain the privacy, integrity and dignity of those who receive help through their services. The selectmen recognize the importance of confidentiality, and therefore approve of this committee's incorporation as a separate entity from the town of Westport Island," the selectmen said in their letter.

"We are most appreciative of your generous offer of legal aid to help this committee achieve their goals," the selectman said. Attorney Cohen has offered his services pro bono.

The selectmen re-appointed Ron Stoodly to the Harbor Committee before beginning a workshop on the town meeting warrant.

Westport Island's town election will be Friday, June 20 and their town meeting Saturday, June 21.