new eco-friendly trash disposal, yesterday.

All departments of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and St. Brendan's Hospital are now separating their waste for recycling.

It means bottles, steel and aluminium cans and paper will be recycled at present with more waste to be added in future.

Launching the scheme, director of plant operations Mr. Raoul Tyrrell said an effective recycling programme would need co-operation between everyone at the hospitals.

He said the hospitals were the first of the major facilities in the Island to seriously consider recycling.

Mr. Tyrrell said: "The only way the most complex of projects works is if the people want it to work. The simplest schemes do not work without co-operation.'' He said that present methods of burning waste will be improved when all of Bermuda's waste can be burned in one place. A new chiller at the hospital will be able to be fitted to refrigerators without hazardous CFCs, when they are available.

Hospitals Board executive director Mr. Hume Martin said: "This is a very important undertaking. It is clear to me that the initiative, the effort and the thought that has gone into this major shift in policy has come from the staff.

"If we are going to live the environmental ethic it is going to become increasingly important for all of us to change our personal and work lives.'' Works and Engineering Ministry solid waste manager, Mr. Dan Hoornweg said: "It is great to see that the hospital is starting to see if they can come up with a cure for garbage. It is great to see recycling efforts are starting to take root.

"It is fair to say that we become so busy in our lives that we do not have time for the little things. Recycling seems to take too much trouble, too much time or we do not think it makes a difference. But big problems are solved with little solutions.'' Mr. Hoornveg said that the Ministry were looking into extending recycling to plastics and hazardous waste in future years but at present costs were excessive.

The hospital initiative was started by green team chairman Ms Carol Ann Tungate who found single-handedly moving waste from Agape House was hard work.