It is the day after Labor Day and cars and trucks loaded with deposit cans and bottles are pouring into the Bonus Redemption Center on the Mills Road in Newcastle. Inside customers line up to have their containers counted and their deposits redeemed. To the left of the building are huge piles of bags of uncounted and unsorted cans and bottles brought in from the Nobleboro/Jefferson Transfer Station, campgrounds and collection centers at area schools.

Owner Janet Fairfield took over the center in March after a succession of owners had given up. "I wasn’t planning on doing this,” said Fairfield, who had collected bottles and run centers in Boothbay and Wiscasset over 19 years.

“It was closing the doors,” said Fairfield.

Fairfield said there were numerous factors aside from the flood of summer tourists keeping the center workers overwhelmed.

Tuesday there were only two workers both taking new bottles in and sorting them into cardboard boxes.

She said hiring new workers is a serious problem. Many would be employees cannot both sort and count. Others do not show up when needed or quit after a few days, she said.

“I won’t hire just anyone off the street."

Another problem is that many people leave trash and non-deposit containers in the bags, she said.

“People give everything,” Fairfield said. She said it would help a lot if the collection centers would do some of the presorting before dropping off the bags.

“It would cut our time by half,” she said.

Backlogs also result when she is unable to buy enough bottle cartons from the various beer and soda companies.

“She inherited a world of crap,” said volunteer Bob Foote who comes in a few hours each week to help sort the mountain of unsorted bottles. Foote moved from the New York City area to get away from traffic congestion and to a place where people cared about their environment.

Fairfield said recently two women had come in to volunteer.

“They never came back,” she said.

Fairfield maintains a positive attitude in anticipation to the end of summer. “It should be cleaned up before the snow flies,” she said.

Bonus Redemption is open Tuesday-Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and Saturdays 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.