Television Talk Show Host Richard Courtney De Castro believes that there should be incentive programmes to encourage people to recover recyclable items such as bottles and cans with a view to help address the waste disposal problems in the Territory. Photo: Internet source

He was speaking on Saturday October 11, 2014 during his television talk show Speak Your Mind, aired on JTV Live.

“A few years ago we had a bottling company here and they used to make sodas and one of the things that some of us learned from the bottling company is you never throw away the bottles…you always save the bottles because you had to return the bottles,” he said.

“We have gone so far away from that philosophy that we through away everything. Everything that we buy now ends up in the garbage, so we need to change our philosophy and I think one of the ways to change our philosophy is the implementation of a levy on bottles and plastic that come in to the Territory,” he said.

“And in that way when you return those things you will get your money back. I think that is one of the fastest ways to deal with the garbage disposal problem we are having right now,” he said.

“We have a litter fine…I don’t remember how much it is. But if you check to see how many people over the years have actually been paying the fine for littering you would find that the numbers are very small, yet I can take you to certain areas anywhere from Anegada to Jost Van Dyke, and we can spend an hour or less and collect any amount of garbage,” he said.

“If you have a policy where persons are rewarded by getting their levy back when they recover waste such as bottles, cans etc. after they’re used, then this [can be a solution],” he said.