THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250415
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Virginia Beach decided Wednesday to quit curbside recycling, effective July 1, ending a seven-year program that was environmentally popular but often criticized as costly and inefficient.
In its place, Virginia's largest city will expand a cheaper alternative, in which residents carry their old cans, newspapers and bottles to recycling drop-off centers. The move is expected to save taxpayers $775,000 a year.
``We're still very committed to recycling; we just feel this is a more cost-effective way,'' said City Manager James K. Spore.
The decision came in the wake of a key vote Wednesday by the Southeastern Public Service Authority's board of directors that imposed a first-ever monthly curbside recycling fee of $1 per home served by SPSA.
Every other week, SPSA crews collect reuseable goods from blue bins set out by residents of more than 241,000 homes in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Franklin and Isle of Wight County and Southampton County.
Board members from Virginia Beach, Isle of Wight County and Suffolk voted against the new fee, estimated to generate more than $2.4 million a year, or roughly the entire cost of running the curbside program annually.
But with Virginia Beach pulling out, and keeping its $1.2 million in projected recycling fees, SPSA executives were left wondering how they would cover expenses in the 1996-97 budget year.
``Obviously, we'll have to go back and do some tinkering,'' said SPSA's Executive Director Durwood Curling. ``Frankly, I'm still trying to figure out what just happened.''
At least one other city, Portsmouth, said it would evaluate how Virginia Beach performs without curbside recycling in deciding whether it, too, might drop SPSA's services, said Luke McCoy, deputy city manager and SPSA board member from Portsmouth.
By eschewing curbside recycling, Virginia Beach is bucking a national trend and becomes one of the most heavily populated U.S. cities not to offer such a program.
According to the National Recycling Coalition, the number of American cities collecting recyclables at the curb has increased seven-fold since 1988 - from 1,000 to more than 7,000 in 1994.
``I don't know of many cities that are getting out of curbside; it's just the opposite, really,'' said Linda Shotwell, a coalition administrator.
But in a report prepared for the Virginia Beach City Council, which also backed curbside withdrawal, the city's staff pointed out that drop-off centers offer residents a convenient, flexible alternative.
The report notes, for example, that SPSA only collects recycled goods every other week and does not accept colored glass and several types of plastic bottles. Drop-off centers, however, are open 24 hours a day and will receive more types of waste than SPSA.
The city also plans to more than double its drop-off capacity in the coming months, Spore said, adding 28 sites to the current regime of 22 igloo-shaped receptacles.
Implemented in 1989, curbside recycling and its convenience will not be easy to replace, said Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf, in admitting that residents' reaction to the change will be emotional.
``There are a number of people who are very wed to the little blue bin they take down to the curb,'' Oberndorf told City Council members Tuesday night at a budget workshop. It will take time and education, she added, ``so our citizens understand why the blue boxes won't be there.''
Robert Dean, a council member and environmental advocate, was more confident in the change.
``The issue is that the current method of curbside recycling is totally inefficient,'' Dean said. ``It doesn't make any sense, and I'm completely confident that our citizens will continue to to put their stuff at the drop-off centers.''
Virginia Beach and other cities have been asking SPSA to stop its current system of recycling for years. A truck drives up and down city streets, with crew members jumping out and separating goods at the curb as either paper, glass, aluminum or plastic.
Critics say the system takes too much time and work. The preferred method would have the goods tossed into the back of the truck and separated later at a special plant. But SPSA still is negotiating for such a plant, and has been slowed by its cost and possible location.
In proposing a recycling fee this budget year, SPSA's Curling argued that recycling charges are commonly used throughout the country, including a per-household fee of $1.71 in Newport News, $1.01 in Richmond and $1.69 on the Peninsula.
Originally, Curling proposed a 50-cent-per-home fee for South Hampton Roads. But the board embraced a $1 fee at its meeting in March, coupled with a lowering of SPSA's ``tipping fee,'' or what the authority charges cities and commercial haulers for trash services.
That formula was passed by the board Wednesday, to the dismay of Curling.
``I don't know why they went that way,'' he said. ``You'll have to ask them.''
KEYWORDS: RECYCLING by CNB