?Everything but the kitchen sink? may be a well-used phrase, but it doesn?t exactly apply to the Tynes Bay Waste Treatment Facility.

Even things like kitchen sinks have been known to show up at the facility as Bermudians dispose of any and everything.

One man?s junk is another man?s treasure, certainly applies.

?With all the packaging seeming to get a little more sophisticated, you?ll have a little toy like this and you have a big box like that,? said operations manager Vincent Shih who uses his arms help with his illustrations.

?It?s affluence, people are buying a lot more stuff and bringing more stuff in,? said Richard Wadden, the Tynes Bay Plant Chemist.

?We see a lot of stuff coming in that is perfectly good. It might be a bit old and if you were in Canada or the States you would get yourself a rotary sander and can of varnish and it would be perfectly fine afterwards. But here the tendency is just to throw it.

Here, there is a lot of stuff from people leaving the Island, who had their moving sale and if something didn?t sell they just throw it away. We?ve had stuff come into the metal bin like a computer that would have one thing wrong with it, the power supply went.

?Guys have found VCRs, stereos, golf clubs and in one case a guy pulled a VCR out that was in the original packaging with the remote control. The person had packed it up to sell it, it hadn?t sold, they didn?t want to take it when they left so they just threw it away.?

Added Mr. Wadden: ?There was one story I heard when I started here was somebody drove up on a scooter and asked ?where would I leave a scooter that I want to throw away?? He was told to leave it there and they would take care of it. So he gets off, parks it and walks away.?

The plant received some 68,081 tonnes of refuse in 2002, an increase of 3.4 per cent over 2001. About 20 per cent goes back out in the form of ash, about 13,000 tonnes. Less metal, some 65,873 tonnes of refuse was received, which represented a decrease of 1.3 per cent over 2000, which has been attributed to the implementation of a tipping fee for truckers in May 2001.

?If this Island didn?t have this place and the landfill was full and we had close to 70,000 tonnes (of garbage), if we were to spread it across the Island ? not being able to dispose of it ? you are probably looking at a bag and a half to two bags deep right across the Island,? said Mr. Shih.

Fortunately, the incinerator did not suffer any structural damage during Fabian and was able to continue operating as the volume of trash increased during the month of September in the wake of Fabian. Tynes Bay is a 24-hour, 365-days a year operation.

?We were pretty swamped on the Sunday (after Fabian),? Mr. Wadden recalls.

?The public drop-off just couldn?t handle it and people were starting to pile stuff at the gate. That?s why we extended our hours, until the trucks started running again.

?We have five operation shifts and they run three shifts a day with a minimum of four men per shift. There is a standard health risk in dealing with trash. Obviously dealing with trash that is sitting there rotting in a big hole presents a health risk.?

Because of the hazards of the job, CPR and first-aid training with the staff is available to the staff with Mr. Wadden one of the two Red Cross instructors on site certified to teach CPR and first-aid.