The Editor, Sir:

The problems and indeed, the challenges posed by the recycling dilemma, are great. But I wonder if the Jamaican Government, the state-agencies, the environmental lobby groups and the private sector could not collaborate in short order, to at least ring about incremental improvements?

Case in point, for the few days prior to and after Hurricane Dean, my household has 'acquired' over 15 five-litre plastic bottles as a result of purchasing bottled water. This situation has been repeated in thousands of households, and added to that, it is the conservative estimate that over 100,000 plastic bottles of varying sorts are disposed of each month in the general garbage collections around the island.

To my knowledge, there is very limited recycling being done by the industry; and the nation's garbage collection policy seems to be, 'if you put it in your bin, it will be carted away'.

I call on the private sector to identify an economic opportunity which could be enhanced by Governmental tax and/or other well thought out incentives, that will yield for Jamaica, a health and environmental dividend in the shortest possible time.

So, over to you, the minister responsible for the environment; over to you importers and marketers of plastic-bottled juices; over to you Catherine's Peak, WATA, et al.

I am, etc.,

C. JOHN PRYCE

Waterloo Avenue, St. Andrew