
DATE: Monday, September 8, 1997             TAG: 9709080067

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   89 lines

BEACH'S RECYCLABLES ARE PILING UP THE 250-TON MOUND IS GROWING, THANKS TO HIGH PARTICIPATION

Behind a thicket of trees off Campostella Road, a warehouse at Tidewater Fibre Corp. is bulging with the discarded trash from thousands of homes in Virginia Beach.

Everything that once was bright and new, from newspapers to plastic soda jugs, aluminum cans to cereal boxes, now lies in a 250-ton pile, waiting for the eventual trip to the commodities markets that are the heart of the Beach's recycling program.

Across a litter-strewn courtyard, construction workers are erecting an $8 million collection, sorting and processing facility that in October will give Tidewater Fibre the space it needs to sort through its new curbside bounty.

But for now, the trash pile grows.

``We can't get this building up fast enough,'' Michael P. Benedetto, vice president of Tidewater Fibre, said Friday. ``Our goal is to get it done by the end of October. We've been storing this refuse since Aug. 5, and we'll continue to store it here until the facility is completed.''

Once the facility opens, the collected waste will be moved from the building along a conveyor, where it will be sorted partly by hand and partly by machine.

Virginia Beach recyclers are, if anything, persistent. Participation in some neighborhoods already has hit the 95 percent mark, said Mary Frank, a city spokeswoman. Overall, the rate is closer to 74 percent, she said.

Tidewater Fibre is happy that so many want to recycle and has had to plan for the possibility that its warehouse will overflow with trash before the new building is completed. To prevent that, the company has rented warehouse space in South Norfolk.

An estimated 40,000 tons of trash a year probably will move through the new facility, which will sort metals, paper, glass and plastics in preparation for their shipment to companies that specialize in converting refuse into consumer products.

On July 18, the first of 18,700 blue recycling bins were delivered to city residents, the start of a comprehensive curbside recycling program that promises to accept nearly everything that reasonably can be recovered.

Bins are being delivered at the rate of about 7,500 a week and about half are now in place, Frank said. Once the bins are delivered to homes, townhouses will follow.

Recycled plastic is used for a wide range of consumer goods, including carpeting, clothing, plastic piping, duffel bags and backpacks, Benedetto said. Recycled paper is converted into paper again; the same principle applies for aluminum and glass.

The markets for recycled commodities are famously unstable, and prices can fluctuate widely, as newspaper did a few years ago when it went from $200 a ton to less than zero.

Today, newspaper, which makes up about 70 percent of Tidewater Fibre's waste stream, recycles for between $25 and $35 a ton. Many newspapers, including The Virginian-Pilot, use some newsprint that is partly recycled.

Plastics, because they are nearly ubiquitous, are harder to recycle. Depending on the grade, they can sell for about 12 cents a pound, or they may have no value at all, Benedetto said.

Aluminum trades for about 50 cents a pound, while cardboard can produce returns of $80 to $100 a ton. Chipboard, commonly used in cereal boxes, has almost no value.

``You're lucky if you can get rid of it,'' Benedetto said.

Whatever Tidewater Fibre can't use, they sell for $25 a ton to the Southeastern Public Service Authority, which can use it in its trash to steam plant.

Smaller companies like Tidewater Fibre survive in this market by settling on contracts with suppliers that do not always take advantage of upward swings in the prices for some recyclables but are set so that when the market falls they do not lose money.

``Our prices are not the highest or the best, but we have continuous movement of products, and that makes all the difference,'' Benedetto said. MEMO: A list of everything that can be recycled /B3

< ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

CHARLIE MEADS /The Virginian-Pilot

Joseph Benedetto, president of Tidewater Fibre Corp., with a 15-foot

high stack of plastic drink bottles.

CHARLIE MEADS /The Virginian-Pilot

Virginia Beach's recyclables are taken to sorting stations like this

one at Tidewater Fibre Corp. in Chesapeake,. The itens are sorted

and bundled before being shipped out to companies that can recycle

the materials.

CURBSIDE RECYCLING IN VIRGINIA BEACH

JOHN EARLE

The Virginian-Pilot