Bermuda is dumping newspapers from its recycling programme.

And the change is coming just as North American markets for used newspapers are stronger than ever.

"I would be looking to make an announcement shortly that private homes will not be asked to separate their newspapers,'' Works & Engineering Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons said yesterday.

Mr. Gibbons said it was "fine'' if residents continued to separate their newspapers, but "we have enough newsprint coming from The Royal Gazette to provide all that we can use.'' Since it is too expensive to ship newspapers to de-inking plants in the United States, Government offers them free to farmers for use as animal bedding.

If another use can be found in future, newspapers will be returned to the recycling stream, Mr. Gibbons said.

Another factor that influenced the policy change was the Gazette 's recent switch to soya-based ink which is safe to burn in the Tynes Bay Incinerator.

Newspapers also provide "an excellent fuel'' for the incinerator, helping to assure a clean, high-temperature burn.

A contractor recently began trucking waste from the US Naval Air Station to the incinerator so the landfill on the Base can be closed. The Navy used to separate its fine paper from the trash stream for recycling, a spokesman said.

But Government asked it to include the paper as fuel for the incinerator, he said. Mr. Gibbons said no other changes were planned in Bermuda's recycling programme.

The change comes as prices in North America for used newspapers are at an all time high -- to the point that college students in the States have been caught stealing newspapers from curbsides where they have been left for recycling.

Nationwide, paper mills paid an average $89 a ton for old newspapers at the end of January, up 424 percent from $17 a ton one year earlier, according to the newsletter Recycling Times. Prices also increased 210 percent for corrugated containers, 219 percent for plastic milk jugs, and 93 percent for aluminium cans.

"Prices are up for everything,'' said Ms Lisa Rabasca, editor of Recycling Times. "Mills and plastics plants find themselves scrambling for feedstock, paying top dollar for material that they often got for a minimal fee only two years ago.'' But at $89 a ton, it would still be far too costly for Bermuda to ship newspapers to the United States.

Ms Kendaree Burgess-Fairn, president of Keep Bermuda Beautiful, said it was "unfortunate'' that newspapers were being dropped from Bermuda's recycling plan.

But she also recognised the reality of the economics, she said.

"What I wish would happen is that more people here locally would generate uses for newspapers,'' Ms Burgess-Fairn said. "Re-use is a wonderful alternative.'' Recent Government figures show that recycling is on the decline in Bermuda. A total of 740 tons of aluminium, steel, newspaper, and glass were recycled in 1994, down from 1,200 tons in 1993.

The 1994 figure included 103 tons of newspaper.