Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Kelly picks up trash to launch recycling program in Ward 3 Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 13:27:07 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN \HD Kelly picks up trash to launch recycling program in Ward 3 \BY Claudia Rosenbaum \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly rode a trash truck through Chevy Chase yesterday, picking up glass and newspapers on the first day of curbside recycling pickup in Ward 3. The long-awaited service - already available in Wards 6, 7, and 8 - will be available everywhere in the city by next spring, the mayor said. "There is an urgency on focusing our attention on the environment," Mrs. Kelly said. "We want to bring home to folks the importance of cleaning up the environment." The District's ambitious recycling law took effect three years ago, but the city has been slow in getting programs in place. City residents who have been lugging their glass and newspapers to recycling centers said they were excited at the start of curbside pickup. "I'm really happy," said Cathy Sutcliffe, who had her recyclables picked up by the mayor. "I've been taking my stuff to the drop-off center for a while but this is much more convenient," she said. Kelly administration officials said the previous administration was partially responsible for slow implementation of the recycling law. "Maybe when the program started there wasn't as much a commitment to recycling," said Evelyn Shields, director of the Office of Recycling. "Now the government is 200 percent behind the program and Mayor Kelly has made it a top priority," she said. Another problem the city faced was difficulty selling off old newspapers that overflowed a city warehouse the first few months they were collected. A flood of new recycling programs across the county has reduced the value of old newspapers to nearly nothing. The city now has a five-year contract with a private firm that has guaranteed to take the newspapers. "It in no way makes a profit. It's hard to market the materials," said Mrs. Shields. But she said the recycling program has paid its own way by collecting fees from private garbage collectors that serve city apartment buildings. When they dump their trash, they pay a per-ton fee that subsidizes the recycling program. Purchasing the green recycling bins, finding trucks to haul the recyclables and finding a processing plant to separate the materials also took time, said Mrs. Shields. Giant and Safeway are participating in the curbside program and have agreed to change their beige plastic grocery bags to blue. City residents can put out their recyclable glass and plastic in the blue bags, while the green bins are for newspapers. Ward 5 will get curbside recycling next month. Ward 4 is scheduled to start getting the service in December, and Wards 1 and 2 should join in the program by April 1993, Mrs. Shields said. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM