THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605290176
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 57 lines
City did the right thing rejecting recycling fee
Recently the City Council and City Manager Spore have come under fire for the decision to discontinue curbside recycling as it is now. I must applaud our city leaders for their decision.
The citizens must begin, as the council and Mr. Spore are doing, to look at the big picture. While the $1 a month fee proposed by SPSA is nominal, it does not provide the citizens of Virginia Beach with better service.
I faithfully put my little blue bin out every week. Every week I have to bring back half of what I put out. I then have the choice of throwing things in the trash or finding one of the city's free-standing recycling centers.
SPSA says they don't have buyers for the products left behind. The City Council has found buyers for the same products. SPSA is inefficient, and it is long past time to replace them with a more efficient and cost effective way of recycling.
The City Council has proposed providing its own curbside recycling service. It is currently proposed to implement the new plan within a year. All of us will be inconvenienced for a year by carrying our recyclables to recycling centers, but it will be worth it.
Kathleen Hughes
May 7
I applaud the Virginia Beach City Council's action for curtailing the
current curbside recycling service by the Southeastern Public Service Authority (SPSA). The City Council has made a wise and well-informed decision. There have been several negative letters recently about the council's action, but it seems that the writers are misguided. Let's look at the real issues here:
The SPSA only collects certain recyclable wastes that are easily reprocessed. This leaves all of the colored glass, cardboard boxes, magazines, aerosol cans and innumerable other plastic containers still needing to be taken to the existing city recycling areas. By recycling all of these items, the average household garbage volume can be cut by more than one-half.
Recyclable wastes are essentially free refined raw materials. They are obtained by the SPSA free of charge except for the cost of picking them up.
Recycling is big business and big money is made in product remanufacturing through recycling. We are giving the SPSA free raw materials and now they want extra money to boot. On the contrary, $1 per month is way too much to pay for this lack of service.
City taxes are high enough without causing an extra burden on the citizens of Virginia Beach. Further increases in taxes should be put to vote by referendum.
I am all for it, recycling, but until we get a curbside service that will benefit the city, we'll all be at a loss.
I urge all who don't feel the need for extra taxation on a less than satisfactory recycling program to call the mayor's office at 427-4581 and let her know your opinion.
Jim W. Green
May 7 by CNB