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Wednesday, April 12,1989
Texas cities experiment with waste recycling
By Sherri Roberts
STAFF WRITER
Although Texas and other south
ern states have been slower to adopt
recycling programs than many
northeastern states that have less
abundant aluminum and land re
sources, more Texas cities are exper
imenting with the programs.
Independent companies in
Bryan-College Station recycle and
sell aluminum, paper and glass
products to companies such as Alcoa
and Reynolds Metal Co. However,
both cities practice “cold-mingling”
— depositing recyclable and non-re-
cyclable public waste materials to
gether in a landfill.
“All that stuff we’re packing in
there (landfills for waste) is a natural
resource,” James Minor, solid waste
division manager for Bryan, said.
Minor said the expense of imple
menting a recycling project is a sig
nificant factor discouraging Bryan
officials from adopting such a pro
gram.
A curbside recycling program
would require the city to buy trucks
specifically for the recyclable
material and also to supply con
tainers to deposit the material, Mi
nor said. In addition, many people
would not want the inconvenience of
having to separate paper, aluminum
and glass materials from the rest of
their garbage, he said.
Alan Watts, manager of waste re
duction programs for Austin, said
that city’s curbside recycling pro
gram, begun as a pilot program in
1982, eventually will close the gap
between its 1987-88 budget of $1
million and revenues of $300,000.
The program, which is financed by
the city’s solid waste services fee, will
benefit the city indirectly by increas
ing employment, decreasing pollut
ion and saving energy, he said.
Because the raw materials in pa
per, aluminum cans and glass have
been refined, it requires 95 percent
less energy to make a can from a re
cycled aluminum can and 50 percent
less energy to make paper from re
cycled paper, Watts said.
Shirley Johnson, the Austin pro
gram’s public education coordina
tor, said the program, which collects
more than 550 tons of recyclable
materials a month and is provided to
90,000 homes, will expand to in
clude the entire city in June.
More than 800 block leaders stim
ulate publicity and community in
volvement in the program, she
said.
Other Texas cities soon may have
to follow in Austin’s footsteps be
cause of newly revised Environmen-
Lawyer for Wright accused of ‘collusion’
WASHINGTON (AP) — House
Speaker Jim Wright’s chief critic
Tuesday accused the speaker’s law
yer of colluding with Democrats to
violate the secrecy of the ethics com
mittee as it considers charges against
Wright.
“My reaction is sort of beyond
rage, into amazement,” said Rep.
Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who filed the
complaint last year that led to the
ethics case against Wright.
Wright’s attorney, William Old-
aker, was permitted to be present
during the three weeks of closed-
door meetings beginning in late Feb
ruary at which the committee’s out
side counsel, Richard Phelan, pre
sented his case in detail to panel
members.
Last week Oldaker began briefing
selected House Democrats and a few
key Democratic lobbyists on the
speaker’s defenses against the issues
that have become the key focus of
the ethics probe: evasion of outside
income limits and business dealings
with a Fort Worth developer,
George Mallick.
The committee took the unusual
step of allowing Oldaker to sit in on
its private deliberations because it
was useful for members to hear “the
initial line of reasoning” from the
speaker’s attorney, Gingrich said he
was told at the time.
But the process is clearly confi
dential under House rules, he said,
and for Oldaker to later brief Demo-
Official: Workers comp system doesn’t work
AUSTIN (AP) — The chief administrator of the
Texas workers’ compensation system said T uesday the
system often rewards fraudulent claim disputes and
shortchanges legitimate claims.
“Right now there is absolutely no accountability in
the system,” Joseph Gagen, chairman of the Industrial
Acddent Board said.
Before a Senate subcommittee considering sweeping
changes to the state’s workers’ comp system, Gagen
read a letter he received from an attorney, whose client
was considering suicide because of a disputed injury
claim.
After an appeal of the Accident Board’s ruling, the
woman’s workers’ comp payments had stopped and she
was running out of money, the letter said,
“Senators, there is not a damn thing I can do for that
lady,” Gagen said. “I guess the biggest frustration I
have day-to-day is that inability to resolve problems.”
Gagen, of Houston, said under the Texas workers’
comp law, disputes are encouraged and there are no in
centives to keep costs down.
When an injured worker or an insurance company
disputes the decision by the Accident Board “at this
point, you can throw the workers’ compensation law
away,” he said. Once an appeal is filed, the workers’
comp payments stop.
This produces an economic hardship on the worker
with a legitimate claim and may cause him to settle for
less than to what he is entitled, Gagen said.
But those with phony claims know they can settle out
of court because the insurance company will pay any
thing lower than the cost of going to court.
Gagen said 10 percent of the claims before the Acci
dent Board are awarded nothing. 1
crats, including outside lobbyists, on
the case is “an act so stupid, so fun
damentally undermining the ethics
E rocess that ... I find it hard to be-
eve he is doing that,” Gingrich said.
“These are people who are out of
touch with the way modern society
operates,” he said, adding that two
GOP members of the ethics commit
tee were “stunned” to hear of Oldak-
er’s activities and promised to look
into the matter.
Committee chairman Rep. Julian
Dixon, D-Calif., declined to criticize
Oldaker, saying only that “he has to
represent his client in the way he
sees fit” and that he did not know
the content of the briefings.
But the panel’s senior Republican,
Rep. John T. Myers of Indiana, said
he had some concerns.
“We extended the courtesy of our
committee, which is not required by
the rules,” to Oldaker, Myers said.
“When he discusses what took place
there, he’s in violation of House
rules. ... I guess I’m just giving a
warning.”
The committee continued its de
liberations on Tuesday and Dixon
said he expected the meetings to
continue through the week. But it
appeared increasingly likely that
there would be no public announce
ment of a final decision until next
week.'
tal Protection Agency rules, which
will require cities to recycle a certain
percentage of waste mater
ial.
Minor said Bryan officials, who
are working with College Station of
ficials to possibly acquire a joint land
fill site, do not want to implement a
recycling program until EPA re
leases its revised regulations later
this year.
Ron Schmidt, general manager
for Texas Commercial Waste, said
cities should increase efforts to de
velop a market for recycled materi
als rather than simply pouring funds
into a recycling program. By finding
new uses for recycled material, de
mand for it would increase, eliminat
ing decreased revenues because of a
flooded market, he said.
Schmidt said drop-spots at which
people can deposit recyclable
materials are a more efficient alter
native to curbside recycling.
Texas Commercial Waste and
Brazos Beautiful started such a pro
gram in February, encouraging peo
ple to deposit glass and aluminum
containers in receptacles at locations
throughout the Brazos Valley, in
cluding the Skaggs and Manor East
Mall parking lots.
Schmidt said the success of the
program has exceeded the expecta
tions of the project’s organizers. It
has generated an average revenue of
$600 per month for its sales of recy
clable material to companies, he
said.
Other local community groups
are starting recycling projects as
well.
The Texas Environmental Action
Coalition recently rescued 10 to 15
tons of outdated fact sheets and va
rious other papers at the Agricultu
ral Extension Service warehouse —
papers which administrators were
planning to burn — and sold them
to a Houston paper company for re
cycling.
Mike Worsham, vice president of
the coalition, said paper companies
offer about $110 per ton for recycla
ble computer paper and $15 for a
ton of newspapers.
Whatever the method, Bryan offi
cials say recycling efforts in the com
munity most likely will increase.
Civil penalties may result
from hospital chopper crash
HOUSTON (AP) — Hermann
Hospital could face civil penalties
stemming from the operation of its
Life Flight program, which suffered
a setback this week when three peo
ple were seriously injured in a heli
copter crash.
The possible fines would be in
connection with findings of non-
compliance with Federal Aviation
Regulations and FA A guidelines and
policies cited in a March 1988 Na
tional Aviation Safety Inspection
Program Report, said Gerrie Cook, a
spokesman for the FAA regional of
fice in Fort Worth.
On Sunday, a Hermann Hospital
Life Flight helicopter plunged 100
feet shortly after takeoff from the
hospital parking lot. Investigators on
Tuesday continued efforts to try and
determine if the helicopter struck
the side of a parking garage before
plummeting to the ground.
The pilot, a nurse and an emer
gency medical technician were in
jured and remained hospitalized
Tuesday.
Correction
The cutline accompanying a
photo on the front page of Tues- *
day’s Battalion incorrectly identi
fied Phil Gooch as a member of
the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
Gooch is a member of Sigma Al
pha Epsilon. The fight also was
identified incorrectly as the final
match of the heavyweight divi
sion. It was a semifinal fight. The
Battalion regrets the errors.
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Wednesday, April 12
THE MIDDLE EAST:
PEACE OR POWDER KEG
8 p.m. Rudder Auditorium
Dr. James Jonah
Assistant U.N. Secretary-General
Robert McFarlane Stansfield Turner
former National Security Advisor former C.I.A. Director
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Ed Bradley
Co-Editor 60 Minutes
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Due to current world affairs, Javier Perez de Cuellar will not appear
^MSC
.Wiley Lecture Series