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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 23, 1994                   TAG: 9409230134
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COMPOSTING INSTRUCTION TO BE GIVEN

A pilot composting program for Roanoke Valley residents likely will begin next month, with the help of a $7,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

The Clean Valley Council will begin scheduling workshops and ordering plastic bins for residents who volunteer to participate, said council Executive Director Ann Masters.

Volunteers interested in taking part must attend a workshop at Virginia Western Community College and pay about $2 for the bins, which retail for $25. The rest of the cost will be subsidized by the grant.

The program is designed to show urban residents how easy it is to compost their yard waste and help channel leaves, sticks and grass clippings out of the landfill. Yard waste takes up 17 to 30 percent of valuable landfill space, Masters said.

After an article about the pilot program appeared last month, Masters said she got hundreds of calls from people interested in participating, but there is still room for more participants.

The council had applied for $14,000 from the state to provide composting bins to 1,000 families.

The grant was one of seven "waste reduction environmental grants" totaling $50,000 given out by the department; 29 requests were received from around the state.

Because the council got only half its request, Masters said she's "got to work the numbers" in the next week to determine whether she'll have to cut back the number of volunteers in the program or maybe raise the cost of participating by another dollar.

She said the Department of Environmental Quality said it wants to work with the Roanoke group, even though it didn't fund the full amount.

"The lack of composting is a serious problem" the state wants to address, Masters said. The grants are designed "to stimulate innovative and creative methods for addressing rural waste-management needs," according to the department.

People interested in participating may apply by calling the Clean Valley Council. Residents served by the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, which helps fund the council, will be given priority - those in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Vinton. But the council also will accept volunteers from Salem and Botetourt County.

The New River Valley Planning District Commission also was among the seven recipients of a state grant. The commission received $12,000 for a regional recycling and waste exchange project.

by CNB