
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 30, 1990                   TAG: 9006300386
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Joel Turner
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

POSTAL RECYCLING INCENTIVES TOUTED

If all of the junk mail delivered each year in the United States were printed on recycled paper, nearly 100 million trees could be saved.

Environmentalists are trying to persuade the U.S. Postal Service to lower rates for second- and third-class mail to provide an incentive for businesses to use recycled paper.

Robert Lagomarsino, a California congressman, has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives requiring the Postal Service to study the feasibility of lower postal rates for recycled materials.

The Fifth Planning District Commission's Executive Committee voted Thursday to endorse that effort and will ask Reps. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke, and Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, to support the resolution.

Wayne Strickland, commission executive director, said the Postal Service delivered approximately 62.8 billion pieces of third-class mail and 10.5 billion pieces of second-class mail in 1989.

Strickland said the second- and third-class mail weighed about 11.6 billion pounds - the equivalent of 46.5 pounds per person.

Also Thursday, the committee voted to endorse the following applications for federal funds:

Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, $700,000 to help provide water and sewers for low-income rural communities.

League of Older Americans, $30,240 for continuation of a retired elderly volunteer program.

Fifth Planning District Commission, $33,708 for administrative assistance to Appalachian regional jurisdictions within the commission: Alleghany, Botetourt and Craig counties and the cities of Covington and Clifton Forge.

by CNB