Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 17, 1994 TAG: 9401170139
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In 1987, amid much fanfare, the county launched curbside recycling for 1,000 homes. There was talk of expanding the program countywide in a few short years.
Since then, however, Roanoke County has fallen behind the environmental curve.
The county has not expanded its original pilot project, while Vinton and Roanoke have pressed ahead with curbside programs.
Recycling has fallen so out of favor in Roanoke County that some members of the Board of Supervisors are raising the possibility of doing away with curbside collection altogether.
"I'm not going to solve the world's problems from this seat," Hollins Supervisor Bob Johnson said.
Catawba Supervisor Ed Kohinke asked if the county could justify subsidizing a nonessential service for a few thousand households.
Retrenchment is tied to the bottom line. At a planning retreat this month, some supervisors said curbside recycling costs Roanoke County $125 per ton - 2 1/2 times what it costs to bury a ton of trash in the landfill.
But they may have overstated the cost.
Roanoke County has two types of curbside collection. Some 1,700 households dump all of their recyclables in 60-gallon rollout containers picked up once a month. Another 2,000 homes separate newspaper, glass and aluminum in bins picked up twice a month.
In 1991, a General Services Department study put the cost of the rollout container method at $47 per ton and the cost of the stackable bins at $102 per ton.
Since then, a rise in landfill tipping fees has made recycling more economical. The net cost has gone down because each ton recycled translates into a savings of $50 per ton - up from $20 per ton - in landfill fees.
Those savings, however, could be offset by a reduction in revenue that the county receives for the recyclable materials. In general, the market for recyclable materials has been depressed by oversupply. For example, Cycle Systems Inc. of Roanoke now gets $10 a ton for mixed paper that a year ago fetched $25 a ton.
Still, the cost of collecting recyclables in rollout containers could be less than burying them.
The General Services Department will release an updated cost analysis this month.
Director Gardner Smith said he does not foresee the Board of Supervisors doing away with curbside recycling altogether, even if the study confirms that the program costs more than once anticipated.
"I don't think there's anything to say it's in trouble," Smith said. "Those guys up there [the supervisors] are pretty committed to it."
Windsor Hills Supervisor Lee Eddy said the groundswell of support for recycling would make it difficult for the county to get out of the curbside collection business.
"You've got a political problem convincing our people that stopping a recycling program is the thing to do," Eddy said.
"We may have to bite the bullet," agreed Cave Spring Supervisor Fuzzy Minnix. "There are people out there who will say, `Spend extra for recycling.' "
Roanoke County officials went gaga over recycling when they launched the valley's first curbside program in the late 1980s. They predicted it would save money and go a long way toward meeting a state requirement to recycle 25 percent of the county's waste stream by 1995. Two supervisors - Steve McGraw and Dick Robers, who left the board in 1991 - suggested that recycling could help the county avoid another toxic cleanup like the one at the old Dixie Caverns landfill.
"Everybody was gung-ho," Smith said. "As we went down the road, things started changing."
The zeal for curbside recycling cooled when county officials realized that even an aggressive countywide program would not meet the 25 percent recycling requirement.
"You can't make it on residential," Smith said. "You can't even come close."
The county's curbside recycling program collected 500 tons last year. But that is only a tiny percentage of the total waste stream of 29,000 tons.
County officials now believe they can meet the state goal simply by relying on recycling now done by manufacturers and businesses, which together generate more than 60 percent of the county's waste stream.
The question became: If the county could satisfy the state with a limited residential recycling effort, why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to expand curbside collection beyond the 3,700 homes?
"Our decision comes down to dollars and cents," Johnson said.
At the same time, the county has embarked on an expensive conversion to automated curbside collection. About half the county's 25,000 residences are served by trucks that use a mechanical arm to pick up trash in special rollout containers.
Smith acknowledged that he has been reluctant to commit additional resources to recycling and away from basic curbside garbage service.
In fact, the General Services Department is having trouble making ends meet with its existing programs. The department has overrun its budget by an estimated $400,000 this fiscal year.
Smith said the ultimate solution to recycling could be a regional approach through the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, which operates the new Smith Gap Landfill.
"I'm kind of glad we're at the point where we are because we can consider a regional approach," he said.
One option would be to set up a sorting operation at the new solid-waste transfer station on Hollins Road in Roanoke. Commingled recyclables - such as the county collects in the 60-gallon rollout containers - could be sorted and sold.
Roanoke County now must pay $10 a ton for Cycle Systems to take its commingled recyclables.
While Roanoke County waits for a regional approach, Roanoke and Vinton have embarked on curbside recycling programs of their own.
Roanoke's program covers 16,000 of the city's 38,000 single-family households. The recyclables are separated, not commingled. The annual operating cost is $351,994.
Vinton has mandated curbside recycling for all homes. Residents separate paper, plastic, cardboard and aluminum, which are picked up once a week. The program costs roughly $130,000 a year.
Salem has no curbside program.
Smith said the Resource Authority can take up the issue of recycling once it gets the new Smith Gap landfill, which is to open this month, up and running.
by CNB