marine and coastal clean-up. The truth is that keeping Bermuda beautiful should never be out of the public's thoughts. But, it is, as the huge amounts of litter collected in every kind of clean-up amply demonstrate.

The KBB's Scott Kitson has said that: "The damage done by litter to our environment and wildlife is staggering. Additionally, litter poses a threat to tourism. For years we have benefited from the perception that Bermuda is clean.'' Mr. Kitson, of course, is absolutely correct.

Keeping Bermuda clean is a good deal more important than it is often perceived to be and where there once was a community conscience against litter, the will to keep Bermuda clean has weakened. If "they'' don't care why should I care, seems to have crept into the public thinking.

Two truck loads of trash removed from Devonshire Bay Park in a recent clean-up is a frightening example of what the public can do even to a small area where there are trash bins. Mr. Kitson has asked: "How much effort would it have taken to dispose of their refuse properly?'' It must indeed be very depressing for those who do care to know that other people cannot bother to walk a few steps to a trash can rather than throw things either overboard or in the bushes.

Clearly, littering Bermuda is shameful. It brings shame on Bermuda and it should shame the people who do it. But what organisations like KBB have to understand is that there are simply some people who do not care, who will not walk a few feet, and who do it their way almost as a badge of defiance. Those people will not change no matter what public opinion says and no matter how many times KBB tries to shame them.

That being the case, we must look at other ways to protect Bermuda. We have to have a ban on take out cold liquor. Those bottles and cans almost inevitably result in litter. If politicians are not prepared to "bite the bullet'' on this one for political reasons, then they have to find ways to pay for the clean-up of this litter and to make it much more effective than it is now.

We also have to have a bottle return law so that deposits will encourage people to return bottles or encourage other people and trash-a-thons to collect them for cash. Yes, it is inconvenient for bottlers, but it is the only way to a cleaner Bermuda.

Plastic food wrappers are more difficult to deal with but, at the least, establishments which sell take-out food should be made responsible for cleaning their immediate area. It might be possible to have take-outs place identity stamps on their containers, make a surcharge for take-out food, and then have them pay a bounty for every container returned to them.

Some of this is tough medicine but that may be what it takes to make Bermuda a cleaner place. Right now it is unfair to expect those people who do care to clean up after the careless.