CITY SAVES MONEY ON TRASH HAULING

With 90 to 150 tons of trash a day coming into Cape Girardeau's solid-waste transfer station, getting the trash to a regional landfill near Dexter every day is a momentous and expensive task.

For years the city has used the landfill to dump not only its own trash but that from the communities of Chaffee and Scott City, which also haul their trash to the transfer station in South Cape Girardeau. So do commercial haulers and anyone who is willing to pay the dumping the fee.

Faced with having to either replace equipment at the transfer station or buy a new system of processing the trash, the city last week opted to switch to a new system. The system will cost about $346,500 but should save money in the long run. Changes will be made at the station to allow loading of larger trailers with more capacity to haul trash to the landfill. The trash won't have to be compacted, as it now is, with equipment that is costly to maintain and frequently needs replacement.

Cape Girardeau's track record in handling its waste has been a good one, from the many years it operated its own landfill to the present transfer station operation. Through the federal revenue-sharing years the city even picked up residential trash for free, using that money to pay for its costs. And the city has an aggressive curb-pickup recycling program that is second to none other in the nation.

The more efficient and less costly system of processing trash at the transfer station is in keeping with the city's dedication to do the best job it can in handling its trash.