THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608290005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 123 lines
[Amid controversy last spring, Virginia Beach terminated its agreement with the Southeastern Public Service Authority - SPSA - for regional curbside recycling. City officials insisted they would find a cheaper, better way.
We criticized the city at the time for being unneighborly. We urged the city to work within SPSA to improve services. City officials were smug and indignant. They wanted to go it alone.
Earlier this week, the city was caught red-handed dumping newspapers in the city landfill. Those were newspapers that well-meaning citizens had collected, loaded into their cars and carried to the much ballyhooed city drop-off centers under the illusion that they were doing something good for the environment.
Sneaking newspapers to the public dump speaks volumes about how some city officials view citizens: as dupes.
Recycling is a nuisance. Every homeowner knows how much easier it would be to just throw every bit of refuse - newspaper, bottles, cans - into the trash and wheel the big black bucket out to the street once a week for garbage collection.
But the people of Virginia Beach are better than that. Even after the city made recycling difficult by abolishing curbside pickup, people loaded their cars and drove the material to drop-off centers. Their commitment to recycling - far greater than expected - was simply splendid.
The city has a lot of explaining to do. Officials have apologized and promised that no more recyclables will be trashed. But they have now broken trust with the people of Virginia Beach and that was the most important factor the city had going for it when it walked away from SPSA in a huff.
Virginia Beach is apparently finding out the hard way what SPSA was telling it all along: Recycling is not cheap. The least-expensive alternative is exactly what the city has been caught doing - dumping recyclables in the landfill.
But the cheap way is the wrong way. The right thing to do is to recycle. And the people of Virginia Beach have demonstrated their commitment to it.
Virginia Beach needs to face facts: Recycling is going to cost money.
SPSA is charging a monthly 50 cent-per-household fee for recycling. That would cost the city roughly $60,000 a year.
SPSA is not perfect, but it also hasn't broken trust with the public.
Virginia Beach should do the right thing: rejoin its neighbors in the SPSA regional recycling program.
Amid controversy last spring, Virginia Beach terminated its agreement with the Southeastern Public Service Authority - SPSA - for regional curbside recycling. City officials insisted they would find a cheaper, better way.
We criticized the city at the time for being unneighborly. We urged the city to work within SPSA to improve services. City officials were indignant. They wanted to go it alone.
Earlier this week, the city was caught red-handed dumping newspapers in the city landfill. Those were newspapers that well-meaning citizens had collected, loaded into their cars and carried to the much-city drop-off centers under the illusion that they were doing something good for the environment.
Sneaking newspapers to the public dump speaks volumes about how some city officials view citizens: as dupes.
Recycling is a nuisance. Every homeowner knows how much easier it would be to just throw every bit of refuse - newspapers, bottles, cans - into the trash and wheel the big black bucket out to the street once a week for garbage collection.
But the people of Virginia Beach are better than that. Even after the city made recycling difficult by abolishing curbside pickup, people loaded their cars and drove the material to drop-off centers. Their commitment to recycling - far greater than expected - was simply splendid.
The city has a lot of explaining to do. Officials have apologized and promised that no more recyclables will be trashed. But they have now broken trust with the people of Virginia Beach and that was the most-important factor the city had going for it when it walked away from SPSA in a huff.
Virginia Beach is apparently finding out the hard way what SPSA was telling it all along: Recycling is not cheap. The least-expensive alternative is exactly what the city has been caught doing - dumping recyclables in the landfill.
But the cheap way is the wrong way. The right thing to do is to recycle. And the people of Virginia Beach have demonstrated their commitment to it.
Virginia Beach City Hall needs to face facts: Recycling is going to cost money.
SPSA is charging a monthly 50 cents-per-household fee for recycling. That would cost the city roughly $60,000 a year.
SPSA is not perfect, but it also hasn't broken trust with the public.
Virginia Beach should do the right thing: rejoin its neighbors in the SPSA regional recycling program.
Amid controversy last spring, Virginia Beach terminated its agreement with the Southeastern Public Service Authority - SPSA - for regional curbside recycling. City officials insisted they would find a cheaper, better way.
We criticized the city at the time for being unneighborly. We urged the city to work within SPSA to improve services. City officials were indignant. They wanted to go it alone.
Earlier this week, the city was caught red-handed dumping recyclable paper in the city landfill. There were newspapers that well-meaning citizens had collected, loaded into their cars and carried to the much-city drop-off centers under the illusion that they were doing something good for the environment.
Sneaking newspapers to the public dump speaks volumes about how some city officials view citizens: as dupes.
Recycling is a nuisance. Every homeowner knows how much easier it would be to just throw every bit of refuse - newspapers, bottles, cans - into the trash and wheel the big black bucket out to the street once a week for garbage collection.
But the people of Virginia Beach are better than that. Even after the city made recycling difficult by abolishing curbside pickup, people loaded their cars and drove the material to drop-off centers. Their commitment to recycling - far greater than expected - was simply splendid.
The city has a lot of explaining to do. Officials have apologized and promised that no more recyclables will be trashed. But they have now broken trust with the people of Virginia Beach and that was the most-important factor the city had going for it when it walked away from SPSA in a huff.
Virginia Beach is apparently finding out the hard way what SPSA was telling it all along: Recycling is not cheap. The least-expensive alternative is exactly what the city has been caught doing - dumping recyclables in the landfill.
But the cheap way is the wrong way. The right thing to do is to recycle. And the people of Virginia Beach have demonstrated their commitment to it.
Virginia Beach City Hall needs to face facts: Recycling is going to cost money.
SPSA is charging a monthly 50 cents-per-household fee for recycling.
SPSA is not perfect, but it also hasn't broken trust with the public.
Virginia Beach should do the right thing: rejoin its neighbors in the SPSA regional recycling program.] MEMO: [Due to a technical problem, the text of this editorial did not
appear in today's paper.] by CNB