truckers warn.

And some feared illegal dumping could follow if householders and businesses refuse to sort their own trash or pay trucking companies to do it for them.

Truck owners also claimed the new waste disposal system is proving expensive for customers because of the cost incurred in making multiple trips to different waste disposal sites.

Their warnings came on the heels of a statement by Works & Engineering Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons this week, announcing that truckers will be fined up to $300 for dumping mixed loads or misdirecting hazardous materials.

Under the recently revamped waste disposal system, metals, horticultural waste, glass, lumber and toxic waste are processed at different sites.

Truckers must now make multiple trips to different sites as far away as the airport for loads once discharged in a single trip to the Marsh Folly dump.

But Government claims that up until now it has shouldered the cost of sorting trash and redistributing materials to their correct sites thereby causing unnecessary additional cost to the taxpayer.

But truckers say the onus is on householders and businesses, not truckers, to sort waste before it reaches the dump.

"It's everybody's problem,'' said AT&V General Trucking and Container Haulage Ltd. owner Mr. Tommy Chiappa.

Mr. Noel Lathan who has operated his trucking business, All Type Trucking Equaliser for the past 25 years, slammed the fines as "ridiculous''.

And he warned fines could lead to illegal dumping by unscrupulous individuals.

"If I'm going to charge you more for sorting your trash or for receiving a fine, you're going to get rid of your trash on your own,'' he said. "Nothing will stop people from taking shortcuts.'' Mr. Lathan blamed mixed loads on householders and businesses that bag their trash without sorting it.

"I'm not going to go poking through their trash bags for them,'' he said. He added he would simply bill back fines thereby doubling or even tripling trucking costs. An unsorted load could cost a customer as much as $400, he warned.

He cited the hospital as one organisation that habitually breaks its own regulations governing the sorting of trash.

"Even the hospital with all its rules and regulations can't manage to sort their trash,'' he claimed.

"Innocent truckers'' will now be slapped with fines instead, he fumed.

Butterfield Trucking owner Mr. Llewellyn Butterfield said Government should beef up efforts to inform the public on how the new system works.

"There should be more education for the public,'' he said. "They just aren't used to separating their garbage.'' But he said the fines were unlikely to work as a deterrent and could mean an upsurge in illegal dumping.

"I think it's going to be a problem,'' he admitted.

Owner of a small trucking business, Mr. Collins Smith said he was surprised by the minister's announcement but agreed with the fines in principle.

He warned sorting trash meant more work for truckers and increased expense for householders.

Trucker, Mr. Ian Hunter, agreed.

"It becomes very expensive for householders,'' he said. "For someone who just wants to clear up their yard in an hour, it turns into a three hour job.'' But Keep Bermuda Beautiful president Mrs. Kendaree Burgess-Fairns remained optimistic that Bermudians would not stoop to illegal dumping to avoid sorting trash.

However, householders should be more mindful of what happens to their garbage and the consequences of failing to separating it, she said.

Toxic materials fed into the incinerator resulted in toxic fumes affecting everyone.

"Gone are the days when you threw stuff away and it disappeared. We have to look at the reality. Things don't just disappear,'' she said.