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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991                   TAG: 9102120561
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE WILL BEGIN A RECYCLING PROGRAM IN MARCH

The voluntary recycling plan, approved earlier by City Council, will be phased in over three or four years and ultimately will include all 38,000 city residences. The plan will save landfill space and help the city meet a state mandate that calls for recycling 25 percent of all solid waste by 1995, City Manager Robert Herbert said Monday.

Herbert said the move will help economically and environmentally.

The landfill tipping fee has increased from $11 to $20 a ton in recent years and is projected to rise as high as $35 a ton when a new landfill is opened.

At a news conference to announce the start of the recycling effort, city officials demonstrated the rollout containers that will be used for storing recyclable materials and a $75,000 collection truck.

Each residence will be given a 32-gallon container with bins for separating and storing recyclable materials. The city will collect the materials weekly on the same day as the residents' regular garbage pickup. Steel, metal, aluminium food and beverage cans, newspapers, glass bottles and jars, plastic soft drink and milk containers will be collected.

The first phase will include portions of the following neighborhoods: Fairview, Wilmont Farms, Round Hill, Garden, Monterey Hills, Colonial Heights, Edgehill, Franklin Road and Raleigh Court.

Laura Wasko, recycling program coordinator, said that in putting together a list of start-up neighborhoods, the city wanted a diversity of areas reflecting the city's social, economic and racial makeup.

Officials also chose two neighborhoods from each day of the weekly trash collection schedule and areas where garbage is picked up at the street curb. The recyclable materials will be collected at the curb because the recycling truck cannot easily maneuver in alleys, she said.

Residents will be asked to roll their containers out by 7 a.m. on collection day, she said.

Wasko said residents in the start-up neighborhoods will be notified by mail in the next few weeks. The containers and informational brochures will be delivered in early March. The city will begin collecting the recyclable materials near the end of March, she said.

For the first phase, the city has bought 9,000 containers at a cost of $180,000. Residences who want more than one container can buy them for $21 each.

Each container has a removable lid and two bins: one for glass bottles and jars and a second for steel, metal and aluminium cans. Newspapers and plastic containers can be placed in the lower part of the rollout cart.

Wasko said the city will use a public education campaign of television, radio and newspaper advertisements to help ensure that residents participate in the program.

At the news conference, Jeff Foote of the Virginia Soft Drink Association presented Mayor Noel Taylor with a $10,000 check to support public education for the recycling program.