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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 17, 1994                   TAG: 9405170133
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

JUSTICES REJECT TRASH RESTRICTIONS

Local governments cannot require trash-collecting companies to take garbage to designated transfer centers for sorting and baling before disposal, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The court said such ``flow control'' laws, enforced by communities in more than half the states, unlawfully interfere with interstate commerce.

The 6-3 decision struck down an ordinance in Clarkstown, N.Y.

``The flow control ordinance discriminates, for it allows only the favored operator to process waste that is within the limits of the town,'' Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court. Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Harry Blackmun and David Souter dissented.

The decision likely will benefit trucking companies and railroads, for whom the interstate transportation of garbage is a growing business. The prices charged by government-designated treatment centers usually are higher than others.

Mark Williams, lawyer for the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, which operates the garbage transfer station for the new Smith Gap landfill, said he had not read the Supreme Court opinion. But, he said, it probably would affect only privately owned transfer stations.

by CNB