Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 29, 1994 TAG: 9412290095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Tuesday, the Roanoke Valley threw away 2 million pounds of trash - and that's not counting Salem. The Smith Gap Landfill, which serves Roanoke, Roanoke County and Vinton, got socked with 1,000 tons of trash, the largest one-day total since it opened in May.
John Hubbard, chief executive officer of the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, said that because the landfill was closed Monday for the Christmas holiday, workers expected a big day Tuesday - but not that big.
``We didn't expect 1,000 like we got,'' Hubbard said. ``Normally, there's a surge after Christmas, people throwing away wrapping, ... stores getting rid of boxes.''
The transfer station in downtown Roanoke, where the trash is loaded onto rail cars for the trip to the landfill, ran out of cars. Normally, the transfer station sends 13 loaded rail cars up to the Bradshaw Road landfill at night, where they're emptied the next day. The trash train brings the previous night's empty cars back to the transfer station. With a total of 30 cars, the landfill authority keeps about half at the landfill and half at the transfer station.
Tuesday, however, the authority and had to ask the railroad to make an extra trip to the landfill to bring empty cars down. The day's trash filled up 19 1/2 cars, surpassing the old record of 16 cars.
By Wednesday, the trash glut had slowed.
``We had 10 1/2 today,'' Hubbard said.
by CNB