Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 23, 1994 TAG: 9408230075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The $85,000 truck should arrive by November, "but I kind of hold my breath when I say that, given the delays we've already had," said Laura Wasko, the city's recycling coordinator.
``We hope [the expanded program] will be running by Jan.1.''
Council unanimously approved a $122,000 contract with Zarn Inc. for the purchase of the wheeled carts, which are lent free to residents and have separate compartments for newspaper, glass, plastic and cans.
Wasko said 23,000 households will be recycling when the program expands. Recycled materials are picked up every other week.
The specialized recycling truck was ordered earlier this year, but a mix-up in procurement has delayed its delivery.
Wasko said she had hoped to have an expanded program operating by this fall.
Begun three years ago, the curbside recycling program gathers 1,300 tons of recycled glass, metal, newspaper and plastic annually. The materials then are sorted and marketed.
Council's only comment on the program was a request from Councilman John Parrott that the city administration report on recycling costs.
"They're just going out of sight. Everybody knows that," Parrott said.
Roanoke County, the first government in the valley to begin recycling, has suspended efforts to expand its program because there is a limited market for recyclable materials.
Wasko said there is a strong demand for aluminum cans, but less for glass and newspapers.
The city actually has to pay plastic recyclers to take milk and soda containers that are gathered, she said.
Counting collection overhead, resale revenues, landfill fee savings and a special recycling start-up grant, each ton that is collected costs taxpayers roughly $18, Wasko said.
The extra cost of recycling hasdecreased as tipping fees at the new Smith Gap landfill have increased.
Before it opened, the city paid $20 per ton to dispose of its trash; now it pays $50 per ton, City Manager Bob Herbert said.
The city is under a state mandate to recycle 25 percent of its waste by next June, but Wasko said that goal was met last year, if private business and industrial recycling efforts are included in the totals.
The city has not decided where the new carts will be distributed.
Wasko said that will be based on the strength of demand in neighborhoods, the proximity of those neighborhoods to existing routes and how densely populated they are.
by CNB