Government’s state-of-the-art recycling plant is set to open next month — and no one is going to lose their job, pledged Works and Engineering Dennis Lister.

Last month some of the 11 workers at the current Devon Springs site went public about their employment fears about the switch to the new plant at the Government quarry.

But Mr. Lister said although the fully-automated machinery only required four workers, new tasks would be found in the ministry for those not needed at the new site.

“There will be no job losses for those original persons.”

And he is excited about boosting Bermuda’s recycling efforts.

“What we process a week at the old site we can process in a day at the new site.”

Soon Government will ramp up the recycling campaign safe in the knowledge it can handle any extra workload.

Research is underway to help a PR effort to nail myths which discouraged Bermudians from recycling.

Bermuda produces 25 tonnes of recyclable material every week — five tonnes comes from Hamilton with the rest from residents.

But the ministry believes it’s only one quarter of what could be recovered and it will emphasise the environmental benefits to all.

Mr. Lister said aluminium and glass gummed up the incinerator and caused costly repairs which added to the taxpayer’s bill while recycling had environmental benefits with less trash being dumped and fouling the landscape.

He conceded a recycling culture had not been created — even though older Bermudians fondly remember recycling bottles when there was a small bounty on returns.

Mr. Lister said the Ministry was looking at encouraging a revival of that.

“That’s an option.”

Mr. Lister explained tin and aluminium is shipped overseas while glass was crunched up and used in aggregate.

“Paper and plastics that are recycled in other jurisdictions that we don’t recycle here are used to benefit us because they are burned at the Tynes Bay facility. Tynes Bay becomes self sufficient off of what it burns.”

It actually sells back a surplus of electricity to the BELCO grid.

“We are recycling anyway. If you burn a pound of plastic you get the same amount of electricity as burning a pound of diesel.”

Paper produces about a third of the power created by the same weight of diesel, added Mr. Lister.

The Ministry will also be investigating ways of removing the white goods being dumped at the airport landfill which are an eyesore for visitors.

Boosting water production will be another big focus for Mr. Lister’s ministry this year and he noted water initiatives were a major plank of the Throne Speech.

According to the Government’s draft sustainable development plan Bermudians use more than three times as much water today as they did 40 years ago and consume half a billion gallons more than is collected in their rain tanks annually.

Next month the Tynes Bay truckers outlet will be brought online at the old ZFB site on North Shore in Devonshire which could double what truckers are able to collect daily by converting sea water.

“The truckers can go in 24/7 and get their water. It will be a swipe card system which will record the intake of the trucker who will be billed accordingly.

“There is plenty of water out at sea. We shouldn’t run dry.

“The system itself has the capacity to produce 115,000 gallons per day.”

Mr. Lister is also looking forward to another reverse osmosis plant to ease the demand on the Prospect reservoir which often ends up with people on the Mary Victoria estate not getting water when the pressure drops.

“This should resolve that completely.

“Again it will be drawn directly from the sea and fed right into the reservoir so the homeowner shouldn’t experience a cut off with their water.”

It will produce 500,000 gallons a day but has the capacity for a million a day and should be ready at the earliest by the end of this year.

The plant will be built by Cayman-based bottled water company Consolidated Water Company.