Virginia Beach Maximizes Curbside Recycling

Plastic Omnium Zarnme neighborhoods of this Atlantic coastal city, best known for Oceana Naval Air Station, a remarkable 100 percent of the residents participate in the city's new curbside commingled recycling program. In the rest of the rapidly growing neighborhoods, recycling rates average around 80 percent.

"We have always had a high recycling ethic in Virginia Beach," said Debbie Devine, Virginia Beach Recycling Coordinator. "But, our new recycling program complements the fully-automated collection program already in place and is much more user-friendly."

Virginia Beach accepts mixed paper, cardboard boxes, glass, aluminum cans and plastic, all of which are sent to Tidewater Fibre Corp., based in Chesapeake, Va., for sorting and processing. To attain such high recycling rates, Tidewater purchased 100,458 <%=company%> 3390A blue carts at the recommendation of Virginia Beach. Plastic Omnium Zarn already has 10,749 Zarn 3390A black carts on the streets of Virginia Beach for its solid waste program. Delivery of the recycling carts was completed in three months.

"Since the residents were accustomed to the ease of rolling out their Plastic Omnium Zarn cart for solid waste, they were very enthusiastic about a 95-gallon recycling cart, as opposed to an 18-gallon open bin," Devine said.

Virginia Beach went fully-automated for its solid waste in 1986 to reduce cost and service its residents more efficiently, said Wade Kyle, Administrator of the Virginia Beach Department of Public Works.

"For the first 90 days of the program in 1986, it seemed the residents were very apprehensive about the idea but since then, they have all loved it," Kyle said. "For the city, we are able to operate the program with 25 percent less employees on the street and most importantly, we don t see as much litter as we used to. We will always continue with automation."

Virginia Beach has saved an estimated $516,000 per year in saved expenses since its solid waste automation began in 1985 and now the recycling program will save an additional $300,000 per year, officials said.

The original automation included using Heil rotationally-molded carts for solid waste collection. Now that Heil has stopped manufacturing carts, Zarn has the contract for replacement carts and future expansion, which is very likely to increase steadily since Virginia Beach grows by about 1,000 new residents per month, Kyle said.

"The Zarn carts are a good product for us because they re relatively maintenance free and they have a good warranty," Kyle said. "In the salt air of Virginia Beach, it also helps that the Zarn carts don t have a lot of metal, ending any corrosion problems other communities have." Coincidentally, when Hurricane Bonnie brushed Virginia Beach with 75 mile-per-hour winds in late August, no Zarn carts were damaged, according to Kyle and Devine. However, the yard debris and bulky-item pick- up service was halted for several weeks so the city could concentrate on assisting residents whose property was damaged by the hurricane.

Plastic Omnium Zarn manufactures a broad line of waste collection products for waste haulers and municipalities. For more information, contact Bruce Gibbons, Zarn, 1001 Northeast Market Street, Reidsville, N.C. 27320 or phone (800) 678-2278. Inquiries can also be directed to Zarn on the Internet at www.zarn.com.