THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606280216
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Guest Column
SOURCE: BY JAMES K. SPORE
LENGTH: 61 lines
Congratulations to the citizens of Virginia Beach for a commitment to recycling that leads the region. We were the first city in the region to offer a recycling program to the community when we opened our recycling centers back in 1988. We will need your understanding, cooperation and support as we continue a leadership role by positioning our system to meet the needs of our citizens into the 21st century.
The City of Virginia Beach will no longer participate in the curbside recycling service being offered by the Southeastern Public Service Authority (SPSA) beginning Monday. This decision does not mean that we have abandoned our commitment to recycling, but that we are reinforcing it by aggressively investigating how we might offer a curbside recycling program that is more efficient and more convenient than the system currently provided.
SPSA's decision to impose a $1 per household recycling fee would have cost the city an additional $1.2 million of unbudgeted funds. (This charge includes the 50 percent of the households that were not using the service.) This fee would have placed a disproportionate share of the cost of the regional recycling program on Virginia Beach. Although this fee was later reduced, we could not set the precedent of paying for a service that we know is inefficient, expensive and below the standards of customer service and convenience that we can achieve on our own. Regional government programs should reflect the same commitment to cost-efficiency that both the private sector and local governments have adopted.
Residents complained that the curbside recycling program provided by SPSA was inefficient, did not collect many types of materials, caused litter problems in neighborhoods and did not provide bins large enough to store recyclable materials between collection days. We repeatedly shared these concerns with SPSA. These issues can be addressed with an automated collection system that operates much like the efficient automated waste disposal system that we're using in Virginia Beach.
Although our preference was to be part of a regional recycling system, we are aggressively studying development of our own curbside recycling program using existing trucks and staff, as well as other options. This system would allow automated trucks to collect more varieties of recyclable materials once a month at the curb. The containers would hold up to 65 gallons of materials, substantially more than the 14-gallon bins that SPSA collects every other week. They would also allow for the collection of colored glass, cardboard and plastics that were not being collected curbside.
To help all of our citizens to make a commitment to recycling, we have improved and expanded our system of Recycling Collection Centers, which are now located at 50 sites throughout the city. These collection centers have been highly successful, bringing in 4,500 tons of materials per year, roughly half of what was collected by SPSA going street to street.
We have addressed your concerns about the old ``igloo'' containers at these sites and have replaced them with larger containers and larger openings that will allow you to drop in a bag of recyclables, rather than one bottle or can at a time. These sites will be monitored daily and serviced as necessary to assure that there is always room for more materials. Please call Beach-Line at 427-3580, Ext. 349, for a recorded message that will help you to determine the location of the recycling center nearest you. MEMO: Spore is the city manager of Virginia Beach. by CNB