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

DATE: MONDAY, March 8, 1993                   TAG: 9303080754
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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NEEDED: ALTERNATIVES TO LANDFILLS

I AM WRITING as a concerned citizen of Montgomery County. I live in the eastern portion of the county, and it troubles me that the Board of Supervisors is looking at this area for the possible location of a landfill. We already have the Roanoke Valley trash train coming through our area, and I am opposed to another landfill so close to the Smith Gap project.

In my research about landfills, I have learned several things that I find very disturbing. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that by the year 2000 more than 27 states and half the country's cities will run out of landfill space. Statistics show that while the United States makes up only 5 percent of the world's population, we create 40 percent of the world's trash.

I think it is time Americans wake up and start to take our trash seriously. We need to encourage manufacturers to eliminate unnecessary packaging material. Consumers should be more aware of the need to purchase goods made from recycled materials. We need to get serious about recycling and cut down the amount of material that goes into our landfills.

Virginia is too beautiful to have our woodlands transformed into unnecessary landfills. It is my sincere hope the leaders of Montgomery County will seek one of the other possible solutions to this problem and not locate a landfill in our beautiful valley. KATHY MILLS IRONTO

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