The deal to acquire a construction and demolition disposal site and wastewater treatment facility is a milestone for the development of a “hub and spoke” model for waste services.
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Municipal WasteHub, a nonprofit that manages waste for 115 Maine towns and cities, acquired a construction and demolition disposal site and a wastewater treatment facility at the former Androscoggin Mill in the Franklin County town of Jay at zero cost.
The site is roughly 95 miles from Municipal WasteHub's Hampden location.The acquisition was a milestone for the organization in its quest to develop a “hub and spoke” model for waste services, Michael Carroll, Municipal WasteHub’s executive director, said in a recent newsletter.
The model includes local transfer stations throughout the organization’s service area that will serve as regional "spokes” connected to the Hampden facility as a central "hub.”
“This infrastructure allows us to offer a much wider range of services for virtually all types of waste and recyclables,” Carroll said.
That includes recyclables, construction and demolition waste, bulky items and tires, as well as municipal solid waste.
Hampden hub
Until it was rebranded in 2025, Municipal WasteHub was known as Municipal Review Committee, a regional municipal solid waste management organization.
A goal of the committee was to restart operation of a 144,000-square-foot municipal solid waste and recycling facility in Hampden that was built by Maryland waste-to-energy company Fiberight Corp., but stalled operation in 2020.
In 2023, Municipal Review Committee partnered with Innovative Resource Recovery, a materials management company, as co-owners of the Hampden facility.
Since then, Innovative Resource Recovery has provided personnel, infrastructure and financial capabilities that allowed Municipal WasteHub to restart the Hampden facility, add a transportation division and establish hub-and-spoke operations.
The Hampden facility restarted operations in 2025, first as a transfer station and ramping up front-end recycling operations.
The Hampden facility is on track for full commercial operations this year.
Hub-and-spoke
In addition to reopening the Hampden facility and working toward full operation there, Municipal WasteHub is developing a hub-and-spoke model and a dedicated transportation infrastructure.
The site in Jay, dubbed JayCo, is a key spoke in Municipal WasteHub’s statewide network, connecting communities directly to the Hampden hub, said Carroll.
The hub-and-spoke transportation model is expected to reduce the membership’s collective carbon footprint through optimized routing and full-capacity loads, he added.
Jay mill
Municipal WasteHub acquired the wastewater treatment facility and the demolition disposal portion of the former Androscoggin mill site from JGT2 Redevelopment LLC, which acquired the 1,000-acre site in late 2023 from Pixelle Specialty Solutions.
The mill was originally developed in 1965 by International Paper, subsequently operated by Verso Corp., then acquired in 2019 by Pixelle, a Pennsylvania producer of specialty paper. Pixelle ceased operation in Jay in 2023.
JayCo began operation under an existing permit that allowed it to take demolition debris from the mill development site. Municipal WasteHub has an application in the works to be able to take outside demolition debris, Carroll told Mainebiz.
“We’re developing this as a spoke, to give members a solution for disposal of construction and demolition debris,” he said.
Municipal WasteHub is working to develop additional “spokes” or strategically placed collection and processing points served by its transportation fleet. For example, said Carroll, municipal solid waste collected in Jay can be transported to Hampden for recycling and processing, while demolition debris can be taken from Hampden to Jay.
The transportation fleet has 10 trucks and 15 trailers. The organization is working with additional locations to develop more spokes, Carroll said.
