DATE: Wednesday, March 12, 1997             TAG: 9703120409

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   72 lines

BEACH COUNCIL APPROVES CURBSIDE RECYCLING PLAN IF THE VOTE WERE TABLED, THE COST MIGHT HAVE GONE UP, ONE OFFICIAL SAID.

By a 4-3 vote, the City Council on Tuesday approved a $3.7 million curbside recycling plan that will turn the dreary task of saving refuse into a simple, painless exercise.

The decision gives Tidewater Fibre Corp. the green light to begin buying equipment and plastic bins needed to collect trash from an estimated 80,000 houses and 15,000 townhouses citywide.

The first of the 95-gallon bins will begin appearing at homes in August, 13 months after the city abandoned a curbside program overseen by the Southeastern Public Service Authority.

In the absence of SPSA, Virginia Beach residents, who recycle at a higher rate than other Hampton Roads citizens, have had to cart their refuse to one of 50 drop-off centers set up in the interim while a new program was studied.

Once the last bins are in place, residents will simply dump all their recyclables into one container, roll it out to the curb twice a month, and leave the sorting, bundling and selling to Tidewater Fibre.

The new plan is different from the old in several ways.

First, the bins are larger, eliminating a common complaint about the SPSA-run program, which relied on 14-gallon containers with no lids. Residents often complained these small bins allowed litter to blow through neighborhoods.

Secondly, with larger bins, residents won't have to decide which materials they want to recycle. In the past, many residents simply filled up their small bins and then threw away the rest, adding to the city's landfill disposal costs, which now run to $43 a ton.

Also, the new program will take nearly everything that can potentially be recycled: newspapers, brown, green and clear glass, cardboard, all seven grades of plastic, aluminum, tin.

The downside is that it's more expensive. At $3.7 million, the program works out to about $1.50 per household per month, which is three times what SPSA charges other Hampton Roads cities.

The cost and the speed at which the matter came before the council prompted some members to wonder if there should not be more time for public input. Councilwoman Reba S. McClanan, who represents the Princess Anne Borough, asked that the matter be deferred for two weeks to allow more public input.

``I'm not comfortable voting today without more people being involved in this,'' McClanan said. ``My phone has rung off the hook. But I don't want to delay the contract.''

The motion was seconded by Councilman Louis R. Jones, of the Bayside Borough, who worried about which method of financing the program was best - through general taxes, real estate taxes or through a special fee.

``I don't feel I have heard enough,'' he said.

But P. Wade Kyle, the administrator of the Department of Public Works' Waste Management Division, said such a delay could effectively increase the program's cost. The reason, he said, is Tidewater Fibre has time limits on bids to purchase the equipment needed to run the program. If the city waited just two weeks, as McClanan requested, then Tidewater Fibre could not guarantee the price. Kyle suggested that it might increase.

Virginia Beach Borough Councilman Linwood O. Branch III then seemed to break the impasse by reminding the council that the issue was less about how to fund recycling than committing the city to the concept. He added that no money from the existing budget will be spent on the plan; the real spending won't come until the next fiscal year.

The vote was narrow because four council members could not vote. Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf had to leave early to accept an award. Councilman John A. Baum was attending a funeral in Blackwater, which he represents. Councilman W.D. ``Will'' Sessoms excused himself from voting because the bank he works for conducts business with SPSA, while Councilman William W. Harrison Jr.'s law firm has dealings with SPSA as well.

With four out, that left seven to vote. Those in favor were Branch; Harold Heischober, an at-large representative; Barbara M. Henley of Pungo; and Louisa M. Strayhorn of Kempsville.

Voting no were Jones; Nancy K. Parker, at large; and McClanan.

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