CITY GEARED FOR RECYCLING STARTUP ON TUESDAY

Doug Kaminskey, Cape Girardeau's environmental services coordinator, is asking residents here to be patient as the city this week begins a citywide recycling program.

On Tuesday, the city will begin a volunteer curbside recycling program intended to help the city comply with a state law mandating a 40 percent reduction in the amount of solid wastes going to landfills.

The recycling program has aroused the ire of some residents, who feel a weekly recycling pickup is a cut in the city's trash service.

Kaminskey said that trash service will be altered but not reduced. He said the city will incur more costs and manhours to operate the recycling program.

"Actually, we've had to increase the work for our employees and their time," he said. "It's not a matter of reducing, but we've changed it. We're still coming by the house twice a week."

The city now has two trash collections each week. With the recycling program, one of those collections will be solely for recyclable trash.

Many residents and at least one elected city official have said the elimination of one trash collection in lieu of a recycling pickup constitutes a reduction in service.

City Councilman Doug Richards has said he thinks the city should reduce solid-waste fees as part of the recycling program.

Kaminskey said he isn't surprised that the recycling program has its critics, but the citywide program is needed in order for the city to achieve the 40 percent waste-reduction mandate by 1998. He said that even with the recycling program participation likely will be low, which could lead eventually to mandatory recycling.

"Based on pilot programs, we felt we might average about 35 percent (participation) citywide," Kaminskey said. "The amount of reduction will probably be minor on the participation that we expect.

"But by getting started this early, it will allow us to build on our program to educate the public so we can reach the 40 percent by 1998.

"It's an educational thing where everyone's going to have to learn how they buy products and the proper way to recycle."

The recycling program will be run similar to the regular trash collection. Residents are asked to separate and label their recyclables and place them curbside by 6 a.m. on the day of collection.

The city accepts five types of materials, which include:

Clean, dry newspapers tied into bundles or placed in bags.

20Corrugated cardboard boxes flattened into bundles.

Rinsed glass with the lids or caps removed.

20Any plastic container with a recycling logo on the bottom, rinsed, with lids and caps removed.

20All types of aluminum.

Kaminskey said the more consumers purchase products with recycling in mind, the more their volume of recyclables will be proportionate to other trash.

"I'd heard one time that something like 40 percent of trash is recyclable," he said. "But a lot of that depends on what we're picking up and how you buy your groceries."

Kaminskey said recycling is expensive for the city and the only way to start a program without an increase in trash fees is to make it part of the regular solid-waste collection program.

"All the meetings we've had and discussions with the public we've been part of, we stress the cost that's involved in shipping and processing and materials," he said. "Recycling isn't cheap."

Kaminskey said that despite the addition of recycling, Cape Girardeau's trash service is still comparable with most cities'. He said there are about 10 Missouri cities that have started similar recycling programs.

"Most cities are at a once-a-week pickup, and there are a few that offer less than that," he said. "I think time a few months of working with the program will iron out some of the concerns.

"The public needs to be patient," he said. "We've got the guys on new routes, which started this week, and they'll be picking up at different times, so it's important they have trash out at 6 a.m."

Kaminskey said the city's markets for recyclable materials are "holding well."

"We're trying to get the best we can for the products," he said. "We've selected the items that we feel we can keep moving. If other markets develop, we'll adjust to that."

One development that's surfaced in the past couple of years, but remains in the research stage, is the possibility of burning trash for fuel.

Technology is available now for such a waste-to-energy plant, Kaminskey said, but the cost of other fuels is sufficiently low to keep the new process out of the market. Should waste-to-energy plants become an affordable way to convert trash to fuel, it would go a long way to solving the nationwide problem of dwindling landfill space, he said.

"It's still not economically feasible," he said. "However, as new technology comes on line, it's possible that it may be in the future."

Until that day, Kaminskey said, it's important for residents to cooperate with such efforts as the city's recycling program.