As the Island ponders whether to charge consumers a deposit when they buy bottles to deter littering, a leading conservationist from California last night told Bermuda how the system has worked in the US.

California introduced a bottle bill around ten years ago where customers were charged 2.5 cents for every can or bottle they purchased, which they got back if they returned the empty container to the shop.

Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott said in 2000 that Government was considering a similar scheme.

Darryl Young, the director of the California Department of Conservation, who addressed the Keep Bermuda Beautiful (KBB) annual general meeting last night, said yesterday it is rare now to see trash by the roadside in California.

He said around six billion bottles and cans were recycled in California each year under the scheme, which was self-financing.

Any money not claimed on trash left on the streets is put into a scheme to pay for the recycling, to pay for more bins, or to hire people to pick up the waste.

Mr. Young said recycling in Bermuda, where cans and bottles are left out in blue bin bags for collection, seems to be having problems because he has seen some left on the side of the road, apparently from last week.

"In California, we had a lot of bottles breaking on the beaches and people were cutting themselves and people were leaving them in an unsightly mess by the roadside," he said.

"I can't speak to the recycling programme in Bermuda, but I did see a significant amount of litter by the roadside and you don't see that now in California.

"I saw a bunch of blue bags that were uncollected from Thursday. If that is your recycling, where you see it by the side of the road, it is not working very well."

KBB is trying to find out what might be the best way of reducing the amount of bottles and cans, which account for the vast majority of rubbish found littering Bermuda.

Mr. Young said: "You have to incentivise people, to make it attractive and easy and to have some reward for doing it."

KBB is trying to canvass people's views and wants members of the public to express their opinions to its website www.kbb.bm..

KBB executive director Lennox Boodram said: "When having this discussion, we want to know what the public is thinking.

"People can email us their concerns and their comments whether positive or negative. So far, there are people for and against. Industry is saying it is a tax, but it is not a tax because it is a deposit that can be redeemed."

Bermuda Audubon Society is in favour of a bottle bill. In a statement, the society said: "Litterbugs would be fined automatically by losing their deposits, and those who take the trouble to pick up other people's litter could recover the deposit at a recycling centre."

KBB's annual general meeting is being held in the Zurich Building, Hamilton, this evening at 5.30 p.m.. It is open to members of the public.