THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 11, 1995 TAG: 9509110032
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 159 lines
A garbage war, of sorts, is raging here.
Those old newspapers, drink cans and milk jugs may seem worthless to the average citizen. But to two government agencies, that trash is a valuable commodity that can make or break their recycling programs.
The Southeastern Public Service Authority administers a regionwide door-to-door recycling program, which makes recycling as easy as putting the garbage out on the curb. It's convenient, but it's limited in the kinds of material it collects.
Virginia Beach operates an extensive recycling dropoff program, with 100 locations where residents can bring myriad household waste. While the city's program duplicates some of SPSA's services, it collects more types of materials.
Both operate in Virginia Beach, and both want your trash.
Some critics see that as inefficient and unnecessary competition.
Virginia Beach is the only city in South Hampton Roads with its own comprehensive recycling program. The other cities rely on SPSA. Norfolk supplements that program with a single drop-off center manned as a service to the elderly and the handicapped.
``I don't believe in duplication of efforts,'' said Virginia Beach City Councilwoman Louisa M. Strayhorn. ``Perhaps we can sit down and talk about who's doing what best and see if we can come to an understanding so we're no longer duplicating.''
But others say the two complement each other.
Virginia Beach began recycling in 1988 at the sametime SPSA was gearing up. The city wanted to give its citizens more recycling opportunities than SPSA could offer.
``I see it as complementing each other, not competing with each other. . . Oberndorf, former chairwoman of SPSA's board. ``We've always had a very conscientious citizenry.''
Now, Virginia Beach has 22 drop-off recycling centers at places like fire stations and city parks as well as newspaper and magazine recycling bins at 78 city schools.
SPSA is expanding its curbside program and by October will provide serviceO to every single-family household in South Hampton Roads (about 300,000 homes). SPSA also has 36 drop-off centers areawide.
Chaz Miller of the National Solid Wastes Management Association said it's unusual to find a curbside program as well as an extensive drop-off program in the same city.
``That's even more unusual to have them run by different agencies,'' he said.
SPSA has suggested that Virginia Beach bow out.
``I think it would be more economical for the city and SPSA if we had just one program,'' said J.J. ``Joe'' Thomas, SPSA recycling director. ``It would help hold down the costs, and that's important to the whole community, not just Virginia Beach.''
Norfolk folded much of its program when SPSA's began expanding. ``We just saw it was in our best interest,'' said John Deuel, Norfolk recycling coordinator. ``After all, we were already paying for their services.''
But Virginia Beach recycling officials see it differently.
``Not everybody in Virginia Beach lives in a single-family home and therefore cannot get curbside,'' said Debra C. Devine, Virginia Beach recycling coordinator.
``We're both after the same thing - to reduce the waste stream. We're just offering it in different forms of convenience for the public.''
Any way you look at it, recycling has become big business. According to Biocycle magazine, 23 percent of all rubbish produced nationwide was recycled in 1994. That's up from 11.5 percent in 1990.
Locally, South Hampton Roads has shattered state recycling goals, with 49.2 percent of residential and commercial trash recycled in 1994. The state mandates that 25 percent be recycled this year.
Still, residential recycling has yet to net real revenue for municipalities. Instead, financial benefits are based on how much cities have saved by avoiding expensive landfill fees.
``It costs us less to collect and sell recyclables than it does for cities to collect and dispose of it as garbage,'' SPSA's Thomas said.
But with a recent upturn in the recycling market, that could be changing.
SPSA originally projected that its drop-off recycling program this year would cost 34 cents a ton vs. cities having to pay about $75 a ton to dispose of the material. That would save the eight cities and counties it serves in South Hampton Roads $239,000, Thomas.
But recycling markets have rebounded, and now SPSA projects the dropoff program will actually generate 23 cents a ton this year, boosting the savings to cities to $315,000.
Curbside recycling is more expensive because of manpower and equipment. SPSA's curbside service costs about 36 cents per home per month, still a fraction of what similar programs cost on the Peninsula and around Richmond, where costs range from $1 to $2 per home per month.
In Virginia Beach last year, the city spent $89,000 for its drop-off program, while the cost of disposing the same material would have been $48,000 - a cost of $41,000.
The city did better with newspapers, actually saving $103,000. It cost $144,000 to operate the newspaper recycling program, much less than the $247,000 it would have paid to take the papers to a landfill.
Recycling in Virginia Beach has come under scrutiny recently after the city restructured part of its program because it was not collecting enough material to avoid paying fees to its recycling processor.
Two years ago, the city entered a private-public partnership with New England CRInc. to operate a facility at the Mount Trashmore II landfill to bale and market all the recyclable material deposited at city dropoffs.
The contract says the city must provide CRInc. with 1,700 tons of material per year or else the city must pay $75 for each ton it is short.
The city has not yet met the minimum tonnage and has paid about $88,000 in penalties. City officials blame the shortfall on a misunderstanding with SPSA. They believed SPSA also would take some recyclables to CRInc., but SPSA said it never agreed.
And now SPSA is expanding its curbside program to every Virginia Beach home, which is expected to cut into the city's collection totals.
``We went into this agreement (with CRInc.) never expecting to have to pay,'' Devine said. ``Anytime a new business begins, you expect some downs and some growing pains. Yes, we should have done some things differently.
``We're taking this opportunity now to get into the black.''
To get out of the hole, the city will now take newspapers to CRInc. for recycling as well as materials from its dropoff centers. Before Sept. 1, newspapers collected at city schools were under a separate contract with a local recycler.
Under the new arrangement, some newspapers will be taken to CRInc. to meet the quota. The remaining papers will be marketed by the city on a monthly, bimonthly or quarterly basis to recyclers offering the best prices.
For the past year, the city had a contract with Tidewater Fibre Inc. to haul away newspapers and sell them on the recycling market. The city paid Tidewater Fibre $25 a ton for the service, or about $100,000 total, which was a good deal when the contract was signed.
However, demand for recyclable newspapers has skyrocketed, as have prices.
Tidewater Fibre said it was willing to renegotiate the contract and pay the city for the newspapers, but the city decided to no longer commit to a yearlong contract. Instead, as of Sept. 1, the city will pay a company only to transport the paper. The city will shop around and find a buyer on its own.
``I don't feel comfortable paying taxpayers' dollars out when I believe we can receive revenue,'' P. Wade Kyle, waste management administrator, told the Virginia Beach City Council last month.
Some in the industry wonder if it's wise not to lock into a price because that would remove the uncertainty. One month the city could make money; in another month it might lose money.
But it's because of the fluctuations in the recycling industry that the city is making changes.
``Recycling is not static,'' Devine said. ``It's very, very fluid. You have to roll with the market.
``We are challenged to make it the most cost-effective recycling program to the taxpayer.''
That's SPSA's goal, too. ILLUSTRATION: SERVICE GAP
Virginia Beach residents who recycle their newspapers at the
city's schools may not find containers to toss their papers into.
Because the city changed contractors for the newspaper recycling
program Sept. 1, there may be a gap in service at some of the
schools.
If there is no container, you can recycle your newspapers in
SPSA's curbside program or hold onto them for a few days until the
new container is placed at the school. All new containers will be in
place by Sept. 16.
For more information about recycling options, call the city's
Waste Management Division at 430-2450.
by CNB