Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994 TAG: 9407140012
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
John Jordan, a Dublin resident who manages Pulaski County's landfill, told Town Council Thursday night that a recycling education effort is needed because various localities recycle in different ways.
Dublin has established a collection center for glass, cans, newspapers and plastics at Wade's Supermarket. But sometimes an error can keep an entire load of one of those from being recycled, Jordan said.
Only plastic containers with the numbers 1 and 2 printed on the bottom can be recycled, for example. When people toss in plastics with higher numbers, corresponding to a slightly different grade of plastic, the entire load is taken to the landfill because there is no provision for hand-separation of the wrong kinds of plastics.
Plastic grocery bags also are tossed into the mix, Jordan said, by people who mistakenly believe they can be recycled. Instead, they contaminate the entire load and it is buried in the landfill instead.
The same is true of plastic egg cartons, he said. It is obvious that people want to recycle, because they have taken the trouble to clean, stack and deliver the cartons to the recycling center, but cartons are another plastic product that is not recycled here.
In Pulaski, the Kroger store is taking plastic grocery bags, but a lot of those end up at the landfill because people overlook the paper grocery receipts and there is nobody to go through the bags at the store to remove each of those slips. ``They've got carloads of plastic bags but they can't do anything with 30 percent of them because they have that little piece of paper in them,'' Jordan said.
``Unwittingly, well-meaning citizens sabotage entire loads of plastics,'' he said. ``I think that a little bit of effort in the way of education would go a long way toward solving those problems.''
Councilman David Stanley, a long-time recycling advocate, reported that council's Recycling Committee is studying a plan for curbside pickup of newspapers for people who want to recycle them.
``It's the best we can do at this point,'' Stanley said. He said he would like to see curbside recycling of various products, but that is not yet practical yet.
The committee also is planning to approach industries about recycling cardboard, he said. If that program gets established, he said, citizens would be welcome to recycle cardboard as well.
But that effort could inadvertently be sabotaged, too, by a pizza box with crumbs of the food clinging to it, Stanley said. He said the effort with newspapers likely would come first.
Council also voted to apply for a $506,250 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to help in the rehabilitation of buildings in the Dublin Industrial Park. The 101-acre park contains 11 industrial buildings but they are not in condition to be occupied now.
The total estimated project cost is $675,000. The town would pay $168,750 toward it if the grant is secured.
Council passed its proposed 1994-95 budget of $19.2 million by a 5-1 vote, with Colbern Linkous, attending his last regular meeting, voting against it. Linkous objected to items ranging from participation in the county recreation program to a $25 per month increase in compensation to council members.
Linkous and Elsie Repass, who will leave council at the end of June, received plaques thanking them for their four years of service.
After the presentation, Mayor Benny Keister also gave them the cardboard containers from which he had taken the plaques. ``Be sure to recycle those,'' he said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***