
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 29, 1990                   TAG: 9006290740
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: By JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PLANNERS BACK RECYCLING IDEA

If all of the junk mail that is delivered each year in the United States was printed on recycled paper, nearly 100 million trees could be saved.

Environmentalists are trying to persuade the Postal Service to lower postal rates for second- and third-class mail to provide an incentive for businesses to use recycled paper and save trees.

Robert Lagomarsino, a California congressman, has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives requiring the Postal Service to study the feasibility of lower postal rates for recycled materials.

The Fifth Planning District Commission's Executive Committee voted Thursday to endorse Lagomarsino's efforts and will ask Reps. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke, and Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, to support the resolution.

Wayne Strickland, the commission's executive director, said the Postal Service delivered approximately 62.8 billion pieces of third-class mail and 10.5 billion pieces of second-class mail in 1989.

Strickland said the second- and third-class mail weighed about 11.6 billion pounds - the equivalent of 46.5 pounds per person.

Each ton of recycled paper saves about 17 trees. If all of the junk mail had been made of recycled rather than new materials, he said, nearly 100 million trees could have been saved.

Also Thursday, the committee voted to endorse the following applications for federal funds:

Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, $700,000, to help provide water and sewer facilities for low-income rural communities.

League of Older Americans, $30,240, for continuation of of a retired elderly volunteer program.

Fifth Planning District Commission, $33,708, for administrative assistance to Appalachian regional jurisdictions within the commission: Alleghany, Botetourt and Craig counties and the cities of Covington and Clifton Forge.

William McAlister, assistant director for the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service, also told the committee about Virginia Tech's plans to expand its public service programs to aid local governments.

by CNB