DATE: Friday, July 18, 1997                 TAG: 9707170236

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 10   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: James K. Spore 

                                            LENGTH:   59 lines

NEW CURBSIDE RECYCLING PROGRAM SET TO ROLL INTO NEIGHBORHOODS

Editor's note: Virginia Beach's new and expanded curbside recycling project will be integrated into city neighborhoods beginning Monday. All single-family homes should receive one of the new containers within three months. After that, containers will be delivered to townhomes.

Thanks to the overwhelming commitment of our residents, we are now ready to provide a state-of-the-art curbside recycling service that substantially improves convenience and dramatically expands our capacity to recycle.

We were the first city in the region to offer a recycling program in 1988. We are now the first city on the East Coast to offer this new more efficient and comprehensive recycling service.

Earlier this year, we entered a partnership with Tidewater Fibre Corp. to collect and market our recyclable materials with an automated system, very similar to the current waste collection system in Virginia Beach.

We were the first city on the East Coast to begin automated waste collection service in 1986. Thanks to this system and many other innovative programs, our waste management division is recognized as among the most efficient operations in the country. The new automated recycling system will produce similar results.

We are among the first and one of the largest cities in the country to provide automated curbside recycling collection.

We will collect practically everything that can be recycled and assure that these materials will become recycled products. With the support of our residents, this program will become a model for other communities. We appreciate the patience of our citizens and their continued commitment to recycling during the year that we were without a curbside recycling program. Participation at our recycling centers has far surpassed our expectations.

The new curbside recycling program will significantly increase the volume of materials collected and will result in over 22 percent of the waste collected being diverted into useful recycled products.

There will be no separate charge for this service to individual residents, but all of us can do our part to reduce the cost of the program, since every ton that we divert from the waste stream is one less ton that we will be charged for disposal.

Residents who currently receive our waste management services will receive their new blue recycling containers in the coming weeks. Everybody should receive their containers by Oct. 31.

Instructions on what and how to recycle with this new service, including the start date for collection of materials, will be provided with the containers. We will continue to provide 22 drop-off collection centers throughout the city for those residents living in multi-family complexes.

As with every new project, there may be some issues that will need to be addressed during the first few months of the program.

We are confident that our partnership with Tidewater Fibre Corp and support from our residents will result in a program that will set an example for the rest of the nation. So just push it to the curb, we'll take it from there. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Virginia Beach City Manager James K. Spore

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