welcomed. We can only urge every household in Bermuda to take the time and the trouble to separate cans and bottles and newspapers from their household garbage and to use the blue recycling bags. We think Bermudians will cooperate and will make recycling a way of life because they have a long history of caring about Bermuda, and looking after the environment by recycling is one way to care.

Indeed, it may be that tiny Bermuda with every reason to protect itself and a highly sophisticated and well-informed population can become a model for other places to follow. If we will make small individual effort resulting in a large and combined community effort, Bermuda can set high standards for others to follow. We need to combine high standards of separating and recycling garbage with high standards of performance for the new incinerator and we can make Bermuda a leader in waste management. We think Bermudians generally are willing to help Government to solve the garbage problem for the sake of their Country but Government must meet its commitments to high standards of disposal at the incinerator and high standards of monitoring emissions.

We have some doubts about the decision to collect household garbage only once a week. It may well have been a mistake to ask people to begin separating their garbage at the same time that collection was reduced. One-step-at-a-time would seem to be a more careful and sensible way to proceed. Once people had become accustomed to separating and "blue bagging'' their tins and bottles and had learned to deal with and store two lots of garbage, then we could have proceeded to once a week collection with regular storing of the garbage for a week.

We know the argument that people had stored garbage for a week in holiday collection situations but it is fair to say that people considered that a nuisance and many carted their garbage to the Marsh Folly dump. Facilities for dumping there have not been improved and now it is suggested that people should dump there regularly if they have an accumulation of garbage. We are concerned that once a week collection could encourage some people to improperly dispose of their garbage and create an undesirable litter problem.

Bermuda has a history of casual disposal of garbage when collection is interrupted.

Then too many people have little space to store their refuse for a week except outdoors where it is susceptible to being spread about by dogs, cats and rats.

That's not very desirable or very healthy. It is fine to say that people should use soft garbage for composting but many people do not have the time, the garden space or the inclination to get into that and we are concerned that improper composting can lead to vermin.

It seems to us that the object of a new system should be a better solution to the huge amounts of garbage Bermuda accumulates. We are not at all sure that collections only once a week are a step in the right direction.