about the new waste collection schemes.

Bermudians are annoyed that, from this week, their trash is only being collected once a week instead of twice.

But Solid Waste Manager, Mr. Dan Hoornweg is certain that people will soon become accustomed to the new scheme.

The Government introduced the scheme this week as part of their recycling programme. Normal trash will be collected by the Government waste teams while recyclables in the recently issued blue bags will be collected by private contractors.

But the fact that the collections will now take place only once a week has brought a flood of protest.

Mr. Horonweg said: "There is no evil intent in trying to push this programme.

A lot of thought has gone into this.

"We are faced with a natural reluctance to change. We are just making people think about their waste. We are trying to encourage people to make an effort to recycle their trash. It is a change for the better.'' Mr. Hoornweg said that warmer areas than Bermuda, in the Caribbean and the United States have trash collections once a week, which appear to cause no problems.

In fact he pointed out that on certain holidays in Bermuda refuse was collected just once a week in the past.

He said: "There are precedents both in Bermuda and abroad that shows that a once a week collection is no problem. In fact 70 percent of trash was collected on Mondays and Tuesdays when the previous system was working.'' People need to look at new ways of waste disposal, according to Mr. Hornwegg, to provide a concerted community effort to dispose of trash on the Island.

As well as splitting waste between bags, he suggested using waste foodstuffs as compost in gardens instead of allowing it to smell after a number of days in the kitchen.

And after parties, the Solid Waste Manager suggested people should tidy up their waste and take it to Pembroke Marsh on their way into work.

Mr. Hornwegg said that the new system has taken some of the pressure off the overworked trash collecting teams on the Island.

Government has announced that there will be no redundancies but overtime will be reduced.

Mr. Hoornweg said once a week collections would also make maintenance of vehicles a lot easier, ending the chaos when trucks have broken down in the past.

He said: "In the past it has been two days of sheer chaos and three days of cleaning up.

"There is no magic here. The amount of trash is still the same. But by going to once a week we have been able to absorb the cost of recycling into the overall waste collection budget.''