Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 25, 1991 TAG: 9103250097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Laura Wasko is using that sales pitch to persuade Roanoke residents to participate in a recycling program that begins today.
Wasko, the city's recycling coordinator, has spent six months helping to design and plan a recycling program that will include 4,000 households initially and ultimately cover the entire city.
Now she must wait to see if residents will separate cans, glass, newspapers and plastic bottles and roll the collection bin to the curb.
Wasko has been encouraged by early reactions to the voluntary recycling program, but she admits being a bit anxious about how it will be accepted.
She thinks officials have done everything possible to make it easy for residents to recycle. Residents have been provided free rollout containers with separate bins for storing recyclable materials. The city will pick up the materials at the street curb on the same day as regular garbage collection.
Colorful brochures explaining the recycling program have been sent to households in the first phase. The city also has used a public education campaign of newspaper, television and radio ads to make residents aware of the need to and the benefits of recycling.
"We've gotten a lot of positive reaction," Wasko said. The city's recycling hotline has stayed busy since it was established last month.
Still, some residents have indicated they won't recycle and have returned the 32-gallon, rollout containers.
Trash is a sensitive issue in Roanoke. When officials proposed that the city eliminate alley and backyard garbage collection in the mid-1970s, hundreds of residents signed petitions in protest. City Council backed down and agreed to keep a combination of curbside, alley, backyard and side-yard collection.
Some elderly residents have indicated they won't recycle because they don't like the idea of rolling containers to the curb.
National surveys have shown a participation rate of about 50 percent in localities with voluntary curbside programs similar to Roanoke's. Wasko is hoping for a higher rate, but isn't making any predictions.
Two years ago, a survey showed that 93 percent of city residents were willing to recycle if the materials were picked up at their homes.
No one will be fined if they don't participate, but residents should be aware that the state has mandated that localities must recycle 25 percent of their trash by 1995, Wasko said.
"Solid waste is everyone's problem, and government can't solve it alone," she said. Recycling will save landfill space and reduce the city's costs for burying trash.
Wasko, who helped plan a curbside program in Columbia, S.C., before she accepted the Roanoke job last year, said recycling will be a major element in the long-range solution to the solid-waste problem.
Trash disposal is "a very complex issue that is going to require a multifaceted approach" as landfills fill up and costs keep rising, she said. Wasko became interested in solid waste and recycling when she was working as an environmental planner in Columbia.
The first phase of Roanoke's program will include portions of the following neighborhoods: Fairview, Wilmont Farms, Round Hill, Garden City, Monterey Hill, Colonial Heights, Edgehill, Franklin Road and Raleigh Court.
Except for a few streets in Raleigh Court, garbage is collected at the curb in all neighborhoods in the first phase. This was one reason these neighborhoods were chosen, she said, because the recycling truck cannot easily maneuver in alleys.
The recycling program will be expanded to 9,000 households by the end of the year and to all 38,000 city residences within three or four years.
The city will collect aluminium, metal and steel-metal cans, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles and newspapers.
The recycling containers have a removable lid with two bins: one for glass jars and a second for cans. Plastic bottles and newspapers can be placed in the lower part of the container.
The city will collect the recyclable materials weekly on the same day as the residents' regular garbage pickup. But residents do not need to put their containers at the curb every week unless it is filled with recyclable materials, Wasko said.
In fact, she said, it will help the city if containers are not put at the curb until they are full because the two-worker collection crew might be hard-pressed to cover all neighborhoods in the first phase of the recycling program each week.
"If they don't see a container out, they can keep going. That will help them cover the neighborhoods faster. We have only one truck and two men to collect the materials from 4,000 households each week," she said.
If residents forget to roll out their containers on the collection day, they must wait until the next week because the city doesn't have the manpower to make special collections, Wasko said.
As the recycling program is expanded to other neighborhoods, the city will buy another truck and assign more workers to collect the materials.
Because the recyclable materials will be picked up on the same day as garbage in the pilot neighborhoods, some residents have mistakenly thought it would replace garbage collection. But the city will provide two trucks on the same day in these neighborhoods - one for garbage and one for recyclable materials.
If residents put garbage or non-recyclable materials in the containers, the recycling crew won't pick them up, Wasko said.
The recycling brochures distributed to the households included a guide on the preparation of the recyclable materials and a detailed list of what will be accepted.
The recyclable materials will be sold to Cycle Systems, a Roanoke recycling company. The city will have a one-year, renewable contract with the company. Officials don't expect any problem in marketing the recyclable materials, Wasko said.
The $75,000 recycling truck, which is a side-loading vehicle with compartments for each material, will likely have to make two trips daily to Cycle Systems, she said.
She said residents in neighborhoods that are not included in the first phase of the program can use the recycling drop-off centers at Kroger stores in Crossroads Mall, Cave Spring Corners and Lake Drive Plaza. The Clean Valley Council also has a recycling station on Broadway Street Southwest near Wonju Street.
by CNB