RECYCLING GROUP SAYS D.C. ISN'T READY FOR NEW LAW

A group of angry environmentalists warned yesterday that the District's new trash recycling law -- set to take effect Oct. 2 -- is already in jeopardy because the city has not adequately publicized the program and has yet to select the private contractors it needs to collect most of the city's discarded newspapers.

Also, according to the environmentalists, four voluntary recycling projects in Northwest Washington may have to shut down at the end of the month because the city has reneged on a promise to help neighborhood recycling programs keep operating.

"There's an enormous gap between what the city government is saying to the public and what is actually going to happen" when the law takes effect, said Bryan Bence, a recycling campaigner for Greenpeace Action, a nonprofit environmental organization.

Bence and John J. Mitchell, representing the Citizens Coalition for Recycling, said at a news conference at the District Building that implementing the law is not going to be an easy or smooth process but rather "a battle" between environmental groups and District bureaucrats.

"It's just an easier thing to do, to keep collecting trash the way it used to be collected," said Mitchell.

The recycling law, sponsored by D.C. Council member Nadine P. Winter (D-Ward 6) and signed by Mayor Marion Barry in January, mandates the immediate recycling of paper products, especially newspapers and office paper, and, next year, will require the recycling of cans, bottles and other glass and metal.

But Mitchell and Bence criticized Barry for failing to provide leadership in the recycling effort.

They also complained that the D.C. Department of Public Works, the agency charged with implementing the law, has yet to hire any permanent employees for its recycling task force, has not actively involved environmentalists in planning for the program and is behind schedule in contracting for certain collection and recycling services the city needs to get the program under way.

George Jenkins, the city's recycling coordinator, said his office expects to advertise by early next week for contractors to collect newspapers from single-family houses. Arguing that procurement "takes a little while," Jenkins said city trucks will collect the newspapers -- destined for recycling centers -- until the private trash haulers are in place.

Jenkins said Barry "has given his full support" to the recycling law, and he defended the agency's preparations for implementing the measure.

"The public is being educated," he said. "We had a July mailing. There have been articles in all the community newspapers and a recycling kit or business package is going out now to all commercial establishments, condos and cooperatives that we have addresses for."

Jenkins, a career public works manager with no previous experience in recycling, said he is also visiting advisory neighborhood commissions every night to answer questions about the law.

The recycling measure is intended to reduce the amount of trash -- more than 2,000 tons a day -- buried or burned at the District's disposal sites. In the past, most of the refuse has been taken to the D.C. government's sanitary landfill in Lorton or to the city's trash burning incinerator on Benning Road NE.

Now, however, private businesses and office and apartment building owners will have to recycle much of their trash. City workers and private contractors will collect and recycle similar refuse, including yard waste, from single-family houses.

The District has said it hopes to be recycling 45 percent of its trash by October 1994. The law prohibits the city from building a new incinerator until 25 percent of the solid waste stream is being recycled.

But environmentalists question whether the mayor and other city officials are sincerely committed to making the recycling law work.

When the 25 percent recycling goal has been met, and perhaps before, Mitchell and Bence said, the city intends to go ahead with plans to build a new incinerator -- a disposal process they claim turns recoverable materials into toxic waste.

The recycling coalition yesterday released a copy of a letter written in June by City Administrator Carol B. Thompson to Fairfax County Executive J. Hamilton Lambert. Thompson's letter says the District expects to have a new incinerator operating by the mid 1990s.

Jenkins said the letter reflects the city's belief that "it's far-fetched" to expect the District to recycle all of its trash. "You have to do all three: bury, burn and recycle," he said.

Discussing the fate of the four voluntary recycling projects, in Friendship Heights-Tenleytown, Adams-Morgan, Mount Pleasant and Glover Park, Jenkins said he initally offered to try to help them keep operating, until the city's severe budget problems intruded.

"They're drop-off centers and they are not part of the designated recycling program," said Jenkins, who suggested the centers combine their programs with other voluntary efforts in the city.

Mitchell said the hauler currently used by the four voluntary recycling programs has been providing the service free but now -- with the glut of newsprint on the market -- needs $1,000 a month to cover the cost of collecting twice a month from the four sites.

The city's refusal to provide the money or trucks to continue the programs, he said, "is like the District announcing a citywide war on drugs and not assisting four already successful neighborhood watch programs."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.