Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 15, 1993 TAG: 9312150089
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By Michael Stowe staff writer
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The process won't be implemented townwide anytime soon, however, because residents in the four neighborhoods tested objected to the inconvenience of monitoring their trash amounts.
"We still have some kinks to work out," said Adele Schirmer, the town's planning and engineering director.
Town Manager Ron Secrist said he still supports a "pay-as-you-throw" type rate service and the town will continue to experiment.
"Conservation should mean that you pay less," he said. "We are just not convinced that we have found the right answer."
Secrist recommended Blacksburg start charging by the pound for residential garbage in his 1992-93 budget, but Town Council killed the proposal after public opposition.
But council members did recommend that a pilot program be implemented in subdivisions that volunteered. Schirmer released the results late last month in a report to Secrist.
"Generally speaking there was support for some type of variable rate service," she said.
The test program monitored garbage pick-up in the Stroubles Mill, Linwood Lane, Woodbine and Murphy's subdivisions by either volume or weight.
The town mailed 165 residents in Stroubles Mill and Linwood Lane 16 stickers every month. Each sticker allowed up to 10 pounds of trash.
The residents who reduced their weekly garbage to 10 pounds a week versus the 20 pounds allowed, could save the sticker and redeem it for $1.30 on their next utility bill.
Residents now pay $23.84 every two months to have their trash collected. Because this was a test program, residents who exceeded the 20-pound limit were not penalized. But they will be if such a program is ever implemented townwide.
Even though they felt the program was too strict and cumbersome, the participants managed to limit their garbage to an average of 20 pounds a week, Schirmer said.
By the end of the six-month program, residents had returned 861 stickes - more than four tons of garbage. That averages to about $8.50 saved per person.
The volume-based program tested in the Woodbine and Murphy's subdivisions got better reviews from residents, Schirmer said.
Similar to the weight-based program, participants were mailed 16 stickers every other month. Each was was worth 16 gallons of trash.
For saving one 13-gallon bag of trash each week, residents received $1.30 credit to their utility bill. By the end of the program the two groups had returned more than 600 stickers and saved more than 8,000 gallons of garbage.
"The program definitely encouraged more recycling," Schirmer said.
Schirmer recommended the town not implement a weight-based program due to the overwhelmingly negative response it received.
She did recommend, however, that several volume-based programs be tested next year.
by CNB