Twice weekly garbage collection could return to the Island as soon as next spring.

Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott told The Royal Gazette yesterday that meetings have already taken place to reinstitute the popular service.

"We have had three sit downs since the Throne Speech going over variations on the theme on how we can do it,'' Mr. Scott said.

The Minister estimated it would take four months to work through procedural issues and iron out logistics for the programme.

"Once we start, we will start on a given day Island wide, not in a phased in fashion,'' he said.

And he predicted the start-up will occur around the same time as next year's Budget Debate.

"We have an advantage in that the cubic capacity of the vehicles is greater than in 1993 (when garbage was last collected twice a week),'' he continued.

"And we no longer collect the commercial garbage from restaurants, institutions, and hotels. That's done by the private sector.

"The quantity that we are collecting, while it may have increased, it hasn't increased to the same volume.'' But Mr. Scott also pointed out that single day collection schemes were common in other countries.

And the cost for extra pick-up days was usually borne by the consumer, he added.

He also said the added cost of collection when the Island moved from a landfill to an incineration system justified an earlier Government decision to switch to single day service.

However, he said "there was no more compelling reason'' than popular demand for the two-day service to warrant its return.

And the challenge for the Works and Engineering Department was to find the most cost effective system.

"It may mean that now the volume we collect during the one day will now be dispersed over two days,'' he said.

"The man hours involved won't be as great as it was when we did the two days last. I don't think we are going to need to go to overtime, but I may need to qualify that later.'' Last week the Minister met with the 60 odd men -- and one woman -- on the "front line'' of collection.

"I have met with those who will be actually doing the collecting...and listened to their views and critical advice,'' he said.

"We are counting on these individuals to make it possible. If they said it couldn't be done, it wouldn't be done.'' And he called on locals to be especially generous as they honoured the Christmas tradition of giving gifts to garbage collectors.

TRASH TSH