Lincoln County has a new composting business, commissioners heard at their meeting Tuesday, May 19.

Ethan Wajer will soon be offering a service to remove barrels of food scraps from county homes and businesses and transport the material to the county’s transfer station for a reasonable fee.

As he explained to the commissioners, Wajer’s business model is similar to the “Garbage to Gardens” business in Portland. Residents who would like the service can contract with Wajer’s company. Customers will receive a barrel for their food scraps. On the designated collection day, Wajer will retrieve the barrels and transport them so that the contents can become part of the county’s composting effort.

“Our goal is to pull recyclables out of the waste stream,” County Administrator John O’Connell said. “We hope this effort will continue to grow.”

The idea took shape for Wajer when he attended a workshop about composting several weeks ago. He has been hard at work creating brochures and nailing down pricing. He has tentatively called the business “Project Earth” and says preliminary word of mouth about his new company has been good.

Wajer attended Lincoln Academy and graduated from Curry College in Massachusetts. He has been operating a landscaping business in the area since his graduation. He saw the importance of recycling and wanted to get into the business.

“It’s something we need around here,” he said.

Those wishing more information about the composting transport can call Wajer at 207-522-8224.

In additional county recycling news, there will be a recycling open house and eWaste collection event at the county transfer station on Saturday, June 6 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and noon.