President Kester Uzochukwu said in a letter to Department of Public Works Director Teresa Smith that he fears the controversy will discourage residents from recycling.

The Chronicle published photos in Friday's editions showing CSRA Waste employees dumping a recycling bin into the back of a garbage truck - one of several instances in District 5 of recyclables being mixed with trash as witnessed by reporters during a three-week period.

One truck was later followed to the landfill.

Here is the section of the letter offering an explanation:

"The fact of this matter is that within the last few weeks, residents of Section 5 have continued to increase their participation in the recycling service. Consequently, starting October 2nd 2001, Rear-loader trucks were utilized as preferred equipment in areas where recycling participation is known to be heavy, in place of our regular Waste Recycling trucks.

"Recently, most waste recycle receiving facilities have required us to complete additional sorting of these recycling materials. A more comprehensive sorting of these items is currently completed at our sorting yard, so as to primarily separate each set of items (glass, aluminum, newspaper, etc.) from the plastic bags that contain them."

Ms. Smith and City Administrator George Kolb both said they had not yet read the letter in depth, and could not comment on it. Neither Mr. Uzochukwu nor his attorney, Edward J. Tarver, returned telephone calls Monday evening.

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.