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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 27, 1991                   TAG: 9103270052
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RECYCLING DRIVE MAY BE A FIRST/ ROANOKE TO LAUNCH FULL-DOWNTOWN PROGRAM FOR

William S. Hubard, president of Downtown Roanoke, said this is the first recycling program covering an entire central business district and promoted by a downtown development organization. The program also is sponsored by the city of Roanoke and Cycle Systems Inc., a private waste-management company.

Kim Kimbrough, executive director of DRI, said the International City Management Association and International Downtown Association confirmed that no other city is recycling in its entire downtown district.

If 90 percent of the 568 downtown businesses participate in the recycling, more than 1,500 tons of mixed paper can be recycled a year, saving the city $15,000, the sponsors said.

The city will pay Cycle Systems $10 a ton to recycle the paper - almost half the $19 tipping fee the city pays at the regional landfill.

Bruce Brenner, Cycle Systems president, asked by Hubard if his company will ever pay for recyclable paper, said it is a matter of supply and demand. "Industries haven't caught up with the supply," he said. Payment for paper may come by the end of the decade, he said.

The city has been recycling paper from downtown businesses for four years, City Manager Robert Herbert said, but the system was flawed because some employees were adding soft drink cans, thereby "contaminating" the paper.

The cost of increased janitorial service to separate the trash and the lack of space for storage of paper containers were major obstacles when the program was planned, according to Hubard.

The cost factor was eliminated by selecting a program in which employees designate a receptacle just for paper, he said.

Blue trash bags bearing the DRI logo will be used for the paper. The bags will be collected by the city five evenings a week.

Most of the 50 largest downtown employers have indicated their willingness to participate in the program and the DRI staff will contact the rest, Hubard said.

If the program works as expected, he said, the amount of refuse sent from downtown to the landfill could be reduced by 72 percent, he said. This would far exceed the state mandate that localities cut by 10 percent the refuse taken to landfills.

Brenner of Cycle Systems said the recycled paper is used by Rock Tenn Corp., formerly Mead Paper, in Lynchburg for the backs of furniture and backs of books. Newspapers and magazines are usable. The paper is processed to remove contaminants, he said.