out a plan for tackling the Island's waste.

Deputy Opposition leader Mr. Walter Roberts said the ruling party considered waste problems 15 years ago.

"It's really a shame it's taken until 1992 to produce a comprehensive plan,'' he said.

Mr. Roberts' outburst came at the House of Assembly yesterday.

MPs were meeting after the long spring vacation to discuss Government's Comprehensive Waste Management Plan for Bermuda.

The strategy was outlined by Works and Engineering Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira .

He told of its key planks -- waste reduction, recycling, composting, land creation, disposal of hazardous waste, and a $70.5 million incinerator with energy recovery.

The strategy was essential because current landfill sites were inadequate and fast filling up.

Bermuda created more garbage per capita than any other country in the world.

Mr. Terceira warned of possible legislation in the pipeline to buttress the strategy.

And he appealed for continuing public co-operation and participation.

But Mr. Roberts, Shadow Minister of Works and Engineering, said many measures now proposed should already be in place.

He said an investigation into the "ultimate disposal methods'' of waste was launched in 1977 by Government.

It was directed at dealing with pollution, and the increasing problems of landfill.

Dealing with waste was already becoming Bermuda's number one problem, Mr.

Roberts claimed.

Government should have launched a programme of education to alert the public and encourage environmentally conscious habits, he added.

"I would have thought that when Government proposed the incinerator and decided on this method of disposal of waste they would have educated the people of Bermuda to what they should do to alleviate this growing problem.'' Legislation should also have been considered to back up education.

Mr. Roberts picked out areas where Government could have been quicker off the mark.

"Government should certainly have seen fit to encourage people to have private compost heaps, and not to go on willy nilly producing stuff.'' Merchants could also have been put on alert about the dangers of waste, and importing problem material.

Open burning should have been stopped years ago as well, and tougher action brought in to tackle illegal dumping and littering.

"These things should have been in place as soon as we decided -- or even before -- we decided on the method of incineration.'' Mr. Roberts went on to express concern over the disposal of ash waste from the incinerator.

He understood blocks of ash will be laid against the shore line.

"It's an environmental concern,'' he said.

He added: "We are concerned this is a new technology and we should be careful about how we dispose of waste matter.'' Mr. Roberts said there were many unanswered questions surrounding the incinerator.

Will the plant be producing electricity -- and, if so, how much will be used by the plant itself? "There seems to be a lot of vagueness, and this House should be told some hard facts.'' Mr. Roberts said the public was "paying through the nose'' for the plant -- and was entitled to information.

At the outset of the debate Dr. Terceira told how three public waste strategy meetings had been held at Somerset, Hamilton, and St. George's.

None was well attended -- indicating, perhaps, public satisfaction with the proposals.

Dr. Terceira said Bermuda generated about 80,000 tons of solid waste every year.

About half emanated from households, and the rest through work-related activities.

Paper, food, and glass, respectively comprised the highest proportion of waste.

Dr. Terceira told how current dumps were full or fast filling up -- particular the Pembroke one.

"We are somewhat alarmed at the height of it.'' It was predicted it would rise by another 30 feet before closing in three years.

Mass high temperature burning by the incinerator provided the only alternative.

Dr. Terceira stressed an incinerator would be less polluting than open burning at low temperatures.

"That is an important fact,'' he said.

The incinerator would reduce the volume of waste by up to 90 percent and cope with more than 50 percent of the Island's rubbish, added Dr. Terceira.

"It will certainly be a boon in the way we get rid of some of the waste in Bermuda.'' Another bonus would be the steam and electricity generated by the combustion of garbage.

Operating the incinerator would come to $3,2 million excluding revenues from the sale of energy.

Dr. Terceira spoke of certain legislative measures which could be introduced to consolidate the overall strategy.

"We may have to bring in legislation to prevent low temperature burning in people's back yards,'' he said.

A legal clampdown was also possible on hazardous waste, and the importation of bottles.

But Dr. Terceira said education was preferable to legislation -- and he applauded the response of the public so far.

Education was vital in waste reduction -- essential for coping with the Island's long-term trash problems.

"If we can educate the public to buy more durable goods that would be a help.'' Dr. Terceira added: "Public support is essential in whatever we do...we are indeed grateful for the co-operation so far.'' Environment Minister the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto said the waste management plan will require the "wholesale cooperation'' of the community, and will also not come cheap.

"There are several industries in Bermuda who have been used to acting in what would now be described as an environmentally insensitive way, that have built their industries, their business practices, on acting in this way.

"They have built their profit margins, the number of their employees, their prices, etc., on acting in this way.

"Environmental care carries costs. Environmental care carries real dollar costs, not just to businesses but to the clients of those businesses. And people must be prepared to put their money where their mouth is -- which I myself have found to be a rather rare occurrence.'' Mr. Stuart Hayward (Ind.), called on Government to push ahead quickly with recycling. The public response has out paced that of Government, which has already been forced to speed up its collection schedule.

Mr. Hayward said waste costs money, even when there isn't a management programme to control it.

For instance, he said, a company that burns oil produces smokes that costs people time and money to clean off their houses, boats and other possessions.

"What happens is that the costs are borne disproportionately by the people living closest to the source,'' he said. "What should happen is that the costs should be borne fairly by all those who make use of a particular service or product.'' Mr. Hayward said he wished Government had implemented recycling and compost schemes when they were suggested by himself and others many years ago.

He urged Dr. Terceira not to paint the incinerator as a cure-all. The old garbage pulverisation was billed as a final solution, he recalled. "The solutions need to be comprehensive. They need to be spread across the board.'' And it was important to remember that the incinerator could only handle about 53 percent of the Island's garbage. The Minister reported it would reduce the garbage it burned by 90 percent, Mr. Hayward said, but the experience of other incinerators suggested the figure was closer to 75 percent.

Mr. Hayward predicted the incinerator "is going to be one of the biggest financial boondoggles this community has ever seen''. He said he understood cost over-runs had occurred in some areas of the project because the contract wasn't worded tightly enough.

Mr. Walter Lister , the Shadow Minister of Transport, said he and his Opposition colleagues had long called for recycling to no avail. The overflowing Pembroke Dump would be far less of a problem if these calls had been heeded.

Bermuda society is "getting to the stage where we are disposing of everything -- but we aren't really disposing of it, we are just moving it from one place to another.'' There was not enough information about the risks of disposing of ash from the plant.

And he said he was concerned by Dr. Terceira's suggestion that penalties for littering might have to be tightened. That would only increase the burden on Police and the courts, he said: Education was the key.

National Liberal Party leader Mr. Gilbert Darrell said he wished the incinerator plant was not at Tynes Bay. It was an "ugly monstrosity'' that should have been built at the Government quarry in Hamilton Parish, he said.

He urged the Minister to take "a thorough look'' at the possibilities for recycling plastics.

Mr. Stanley Morton , the Shadow Minister for Delegated Affairs, said the dump was of particular concern to his own constituents in Pembroke East Central. He worried about the affects of pollutants on them.

"I don't believe for one minute that the Government of the day is concerned about people in that area, people who live on the perimeter of the dump...It's a political disgrace for the Government of the day to be putting more garbage on a place that's already been exhausted.'' The least Government could do, he said, is regularly inspect the roofs and water tanks of houses in the area to ensure they are safe.

Mr. Eugene Blakeney (PLP), questioned the $250,000 a month delays in the incinerator are costing -- the cost of storage and insurance overseas for the equipment.

Mr. Eugene Cox , the Shadow Finance Minister, said the incinerator's cost "seems to be increasing daily....which obviously suggests that the whole matter was not fully thought out, it was not fully planned, so Government, the people of Bermuda, all of us, are having to pay the price.'' Mr. Nelson Bascome , the Shadow Health Minister, said the waste management plan "is only a political ploy in an election climate''.

But the plan has provided nothing of substance for him to take back to his constituents in Pembroke East, which runs along the east side of the dump. He couldn't even tell his constituents when the dump will be closed.

Education Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons said he was pleased by proposals to do away with yard fires, which were a pollutant and a nuisance -- but almost a tradition in Bermuda.

He agreed the waste management plan would be expensive, but so were the health and other costs of doing nothing. The plan was not a political ploy, he said: "Nothing could be further from the truth.'' Opposition Leader Mr. Frederick Wade , who represents Devonshire North where the Tynes Bay incinerator is located, said he opposed the incinerator location from the beginning: It helped break up an important stretch of green space between Dock Hill and Barker's Hill.

"I have no confidence whatsoever in this Government's ability to manage the byproducts of this incinerator,'' he said. He said he had seen no plans for what would be done with the ash, or how it would be stored, before it is converted into blocks.

He predicted streets and trees would be covered with ash. "I expect it to become ruined by this Government,'' he said. "There are a lot of ifs, and I would feel a lot better if we could see some more detail, some more concrete proposals covering the byproduct.'' Before yesterday's debate Mr. Hayward questioned whether Government would be sending a representative to the Brazil "earth summit''.

Mr. Hayward indicated Bermuda's vast emission of "greenhouse'' gases meant it was important to attend.

A healthy ecology and economy were interlinked, said Mr. Hayward.

Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto, stressing she was giving an impromptu response, said Bermuda would not be represented.

She said a local delegation would include a technical officer, and the cost to the taxpayer would be too high.

But Mrs. DeCouto said Government would be debriefed by the United Kingdom delegate at the conference.

Under questioning from Mr. Hayward, Dr. Terceira put the cost of a paving scheme at Camp Hill, Southampton, near Fisher Brothers, at $33,000.

He spoke of additional costs following flooding in the area.

Mr. Bascome was unable to put a series of planned questions on the prisons to Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness , because the Minister was out of the chamber during question period. The questions will be answered next week.