THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504070163
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
The snowy white beauty of Bradford pears blooming around the city once again confirms the wisdom of planting trees everywhere we can.
I remember when some people made fun of former City Manager George Hanbury's penchant for planting trees but right now we are seeing some of the results of his notions about beautifying the city.
In addition, many of the commercial areas that were developed during the 1980s have Bradford pears and other spectacular trees in them. Certainly it is not unreasonable to require developers to beautify.
But whether we plant one or 100 trees, we are making the city not only more beautiful but healthier.
On Wednesday, a tree was planted on Halifax Street at the Portsmouth-Chesapeake Association of Realtors office in honor of Margaret Teele, a Realtor who died after being attacked by a purse snatcher.
The tree was planted by Century 21 First Colony Realty as part of a Century 21 project across the state. It was a local celebration of Keep Virginia Beautiful Week.
Keep Virginia Beautiful Inc. is a nonprofit organization aimed at preventing litter, supporting recycling and beautifying the environment.
By coincidence, the areas of Portsmouth that have not had curbside recyling received blue recycling bins during the week.
Assistant City Manager Luke McCoy said by June 30, everybody will have recycling services and by the end of the year, everybody will have automated trash pickup.
McCoy said about 50 percent of the households participate in curbside recyling in area already getting the service. That figure always shocks me because, by recycling, we can hold down the cost of disposing of our trash.
Aside from the virtue of saving natural resources by reusing materials like paper and aluminum, there definitely is a financial incentive.
McCoy said the cost of disposing of a ton of recyclables is about $10. The cost of disposing of a ton of garbage is about $48. That is an impressive saving for every ton of recyclables we take out of our garbage.
The proposed increase in the cost of garbage collection for the next two years, an increase that reflects increased costs of disposing of the garbage at the landfill, makes a very strong statement for recycling. Still, we can't seem to get more than half our citizens to participate.
If we had almost 100 percent participation, we perhaps could avoid additional increases for a while.
In fact, some of the people who gripe the most about the cost of trash and garbage pickup are the same people who do not take the time to separate out recyclables. I've asked a lot of them and I'm always a little surprised at who doesn't recycle.
McCoy has told me in the past that older neighborhoods generally have less participation than newer ones. That's amazing since many people who live in older areas already are recycling a house.
Curbside recyling is easy. You just have to remember to put the cans and the newspapers and whatever else into the recycling bin instead of the trash can. Nothing hard about that except you have to think when you're cleaning up until you break the habit of tossing everything into the trash.
McCoy said the automated pickup of garbage, using the large black bins, also helps with neighborhood beautification.
``It doesn't solve all the problems but it has made a difference where we've had it,'' he said.
With recycling and automated trash pickup coming to every household, we should be seeing cleaner neighborhoods by next year.
Now if more of us will plant trees on our own property and if the city will make some provision to replace on a one-for-one basis the trees they remove from public land, next spring will be even more lovely than this one. by CNB