
DATE: Sunday, August 3, 1997                TAG: 9708020135

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Cover Story 

SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   91 lines

WE'RE NOT TALKIN' TRASH THE BEACH IS BACK ON TRACK WITH RECYCLING

WHEN THE CITY temporarily dropped curbside recycling last year, the experience of Martha and Frankie Beachan came to illustrate neatly the dilemma faced by many Beach residents.

The Wolfsnare couple recycled out of a sense of environmental stewardship. They took the time to sort through their trash, selecting the items they knew would be collected at the curb.

Then the program ended, so they reluctantly agreed to take their recyclables to a nearby drop-off center at Trantwood Elementary school. The city had set up 50 such centers to make recycling easier while it worked on a new curbside plan.

But the Beachans grew tired of the trip, and found it easier to begin simply throwing the trash away. It wasn't long before they quietly abandoned recycling altogether and waited for something better to come along.

That moment arrived last week when a shiny new 95-gallon blue recycling bin showed up at their home on Simpkins Lane.

``It's not very pretty but I figure we'll keep it,'' said Martha Beacham, a school teacher. ``Maybe we'll build a fence around it. I'm a big lover of nature, so I figure I'll start recycling again.

``We were recycling but we gradually stopped,'' she added. ``Now that it's so easy, we'll start again.''

Absent for 15 months, the city's new curbside recycling program is taking shape again as 85,000 new blue, wheeled bins are being delivered to homes across the city. In the fall, about 18,700 town homes will receive 18-gallon bins. Collection from the 95-gallon bins will begin Tuesday.

Despite the inconvenience faced by the Beachans and untold thousands of others, city officials have said that the volume of refuse delivered to the drop off centers nearly matched what would have been picked up at the curb, but not entirely, if the Beachan's experience was common.

As of Wednesday, the city had delivered 10,000 of the new containers and if all goes according to plan it should reach the 14,000 mark by today , said Debbie Devine, the city's recycling coordinator.

For the most part, the public has been receptive to the big blue containers, but a few have not.

``We have had to pick up 30 containers so far,'' Devine said. ``So out of 10,000, it's not very many. We're getting a wonderful reception from the public as we deliver them. People seem to know what we're doing and why they're here. I'm real pleased.''

Across the Great Neck area neighborhood, William O. Whiteside, a scrappy 70-year-old who retired from the Navy and, later, from a career in real estate, said he would gladly recycle his household trash. Recycling is something he's been doing most of his life, he said.

``I was a recycler when I was a kid,'' Whiteside said, as he stood in front of his home on Sadler Court. ``We didn't call it recycling then, but back during the war, that's the second world war, we would find scrap iron and aluminum and take it in for reuse.''

But with all the effort that goes into making recycling work, Whiteside said he would prefer that bottles and cans have a deposit placed on them so that people would have an economic incentive to recycle.

``If they put a 40 cent deposit on cans and bottles, then even people living in the woods could make a little money,'' he said.

Such changes are not likely any time soon, but the new program should make it about as easy to recycle as possible. The new program, which is being run the Tidewater Fibre Inc. of Chesapeake, will take all grades of plastic bottles, corrugated cardboard and chipboard, which is generally cereal, cracker and paper six-pack holders. As always, metals such as aluminum, tin and steel will be taken, as will clear, green and brown glass, and newspaper.

The new program will even take batteries, junk mail, magazines, paper grocery bags - not the plastic kind - and telephone books. In short, just about everything that people throw away.

The program is intended to be so comprehensive, that with some forethought and judicious purchasing and the use of a compost pile, a clever resident could conceivably render the black trash can useless and recycle everything. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

Color cover photos...

Staff photo by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH

Martha and Frankie Beachan are eager to recycle again after months

of carting their household trash to a city drop-off center.

Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT

Leroy Griffin, left, and Hugh Martin deliver new recycling

containers near Great Neck Road. Curbside collection from the

95-gallon bins will begin Tuesday.

Graphic

Curbside Recyling at Virginia Beach: What's New

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: RECYCLING