Recycling Program

REFUSEWISE, it has been an interesting month in Baltimore. Ever since the first of the month when the Department of Public Works changed the way it picks up recyclables-mainly stacks of newspapers and "blue bags" containing plastic and glass - street life in this town has taken on a fresh excitement. A lot of criticism has been voiced about the new program, which calls for residents to put their recyclables in the front of houses, not in the alleys, and changes the pickup schedule. As a fan of alleys, I too railed against the change in a column several weeks ago. But after watching the program in action for the past few weeks, I now can say a few positive things about it. First of all, dogs love it. On "blue bag" recycling day when bags are placed on city sidewalks, city dogs are having a field day as they walk their appointed rounds.

On Monday, the city Department of Public Works launched a recycling program that changed pickup dates in the name of efficiency. Trouble was, about 50,000 households did not receive the new schedule in the mail. So, for the next three days, DPW will revert to its previous recycling schedule. Residents whose former recycling days were Thursday, Friday or Saturday will get their items picked up at those times this week. Those whose homes were missed can call the Department of Public Works at 396-5916 to request a pick-up.

MAYOR MARTIN O'Malley's proposal to end Baltimore's blue-bag curbside recycling program is garbage. This program was designed to serve the public health and conserve natural resources. Eliminating it may save the city about $500,000, but there are unknown costs that could eat these suspected savings. Fortunately, there is a way out of this dilemma. The city should move to make the program mandatory, and use an unexpected tax windfall to ease the financial burden on the city. In 1976, Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

The city's "blue bag" curbside recycling program might be spared the budget-cutting knife after all. Mayor Martin O'Malley gave local environmental activists 30 days yesterday to devise a plan to make the recycling program profitable -- a goal activists believe they can reach. "I'm optimistic," O'Malley said after meeting yesterday afternoon with more than a half-dozen recycling advocates. O'Malley's preliminary budget plan called for cutting curbside collection of glass, metals and plastics to save the city as much as $500,000 a year, part of a larger effort to cut tens of millions of dollars in spending to balance next year's budget.

RECYCLING IS essential to the future of our planet. It offers a practical solution to a critical environmental problem. Fortunately, recycling is easy to do and everyone can make an important contribution."

SOMETHING wrong with this picture: Baltimore County proudly announces that its curbside recycling program has been setting records and raising sweet amounts of cash to offset the cost of trash removal while the city of Baltimore gloomily announces that it needs to cut its underachieving blue-bag program to save $500,000. I know: The county doesn't have a violent-crime crisis, a shrinking population and tax base, and the highest concentration of the state's poor. But maybe it also has smarter management of its government and, when it comes to recycling, maybe a stronger public-awareness effort to get more of its residents to participate.

THIS IS A SAD day for everyone who supplemented their education with the wisdom of Kermit the Frog. Baltimore's decision to scale down the curbside recycling program shows he was dead right when he sang, "It's Not Easy Being Green." With a big budget deficit looming, it's hard to argue against Mayor Martin O'Malley's belt-tightening efforts. But the end of pickups for glass, metal and plastic through the 10-year-old program -- just like the closing of public libraries -- also scrubs a secondary service whose elimination carries a devastating symbolic impact.

ROCKVILLE -- His highly publicized recycling program in ruins, an angry Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan yesterday demanded an apology from those he holds responsible: the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, the County Council and his own advisers."

IT STILL pays to recycle. Yes, it is becoming more expensive for Howard County to recycle paper, bottles, cans and yard waste at a time when administrators are getting bargain rates for sending solid waste to a landfill. Soon the county will pay almost the same price to dispose of waste, regardless of whether it is recycled or buried in the ground.Howard pays only $33 a ton to have its waste transported to a Virginia landfill. When the county signs new contracts, it will cost only slightly less than that to recycle an average ton of material.

Howard County's recycling program, built on the premise of saving money while saving the environment, has reached a crisis: It will soon cost more to recycle cans, bottles and yard waste than to bury them in a landfill.That doesn't mean residents should start tossing their cola bottles and grass cuttings into the trash. County officials and recycling experts say market forces could restore the profitability of recyclables in just a few months.But for now, the problem spotlights an economic quandary at the heart of the recycling revolution across the nation: Can the demand for recyclables keep pace with the ever-growing supply?