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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 8, 1991                   TAG: 9103080827
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

COMPLAINTS MAY DELAY TRASH PLAN

The City Council might bag a proposed trash plan until next year because its members said they have heard so many complaints about it.

"There is just a lot of resistance, and I am getting it from all corners," council member David Toscano said Thursday.

The pay-per-bag plan unveiled last month would require city residents to put their garbage in official 75-cent city trash bags. Businesses and apartment complexes with dumpsters would pay 69 cents per cubic yard of trash.

Ironing out the problems with the plan and reassuring residents will take longer than the five weeks left before the council must adopt a fiscal 1992 budget, council members said.

"It seems to me we've got a year's worth of work to do to get a very comprehensive system in place," council member Kay Slaughter said.

The plan would earn $1.3 million, enough to cover soaring landfill expenses and the cost of a city-wide recycling program. It would also encourage residents and businesses to produce less garbage and recycle more, officials said.

But the recycling program may not be in place until October, more than three months after the trash fees would go into effect. Apartments and businesses, which account for more than half of city garbage, would not be covered by the recycling plan.

"If you're arguing that the bag plan would be an incentive to recycle, then let's get the recycling program in place first," council member Tom Vandever said.

by CNB