DATE: Tuesday, March 11, 1997               TAG: 9703110002

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   52 lines

RECYCLING: A GOOD PLAN VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL SHOULD APPROVE A COMPREHENSIVE TRASH PROGRAM.

How much is Virginia Beach willing to spend on recycling?

Council must answer that question today when it votes on a proposed plan to make Virginia Beach's recycling program the best - and most expensive - in Hampton Roads.

Last year the area's largest city dropped out of the Southeastern Public Service Authority's regional recycling program after SPSA's board voted a $1 per household fee. The city refused to rejoin SPSA's program when the fee was cut in half. City officials declared the program too expensive and inefficient. Under the old curbside program, many recyclable materials such as green glass and certain types of plastics were excluded. The small blue bins also contributed to neighborhood litter when material would blow out of the open tops.

Now Virginia Beach City Council is pondering a state-of-the-art comprehensive curbside recycling program like the successful one being used in Los Angeles. Under the proposal, 85,000 homeowners would be issued 95-gallon plastic containers, while 15,000 townhouse residents would receive 18-gallon bins. All manner of recyclables could be commingled in these containers: newspapers, cardboard, plastics, junk mail, magazines and colored glass.

But as we noted last year, this kind of service does not come cheaply, and those who thought the city could save money by leaving SPSA's regional recycling program have been proved wrong.

A conservative estimate of the net cost of this new curbside recycling plan is about $1.8 million a year - or $1.50 per household. That cost could climb dramatically if the city's estimates of the tonnage of recycling turn out to be overly optimistic.

Recycling is a costly way to dispose of some waste, but it's the right thing to do. The least expensive alternative is to toss all refuse into the local landfill and ignore the environmental consequences. That would be socially irresponsible.

Virginia Beach residents have shown an admirable resolve to recycle - even after the city made it inconvenient and downright difficult to do so last summer. In fact, public response has apparently encouraged the city to propose a more expensive but more comprehensive service.

If council approves the five-year contract with Tidewater Fibre today - as it ought - residents must begin recycling in earnest or the city will be stuck with a recycling bill even higher than its current predictions.

If, by contrast, the level of recycling exceeds expectations, cost of garbage disposal would drop and the city could actually share in the proceeds of recycling.

Virginia Beach City Council should approve the plan. Virginia Beach residents should do their part by enthusiastically recycling all permitted materials when the recycling program begins later this year.

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