Recycling bill slashed, says Prescod

Government’s monthly obligation to the Sustainable Barbados Recycling Centre (SBRC) will soon be reduced by more than 50 per cent.

This was revealed by Minister of the Environment and National Beautification Trevor Prescod, who disclosed that government was currently renegotiating its contract with SBRC and would see them move from paying the company $2 million per month to less than $1 million monthly.

However, Government remains indebted to the recycling company owned by businessman Ralph Bizzy Williams to the tune of more than $20 million.

The minister was responding to questions from Opposition Leader Joseph Atherley, who asked for clarity on Government’s relationship with SBRC, which receives and processes the island’s solid waste.

“There are lots of details that time would not permit me to go into them, but what I can tell you is that Government at present is renegotiating the arrangements in the contract. The outcome of those arrangements will be made known at the appropriate time.

“But the costs that we pay to SBRC will be reduced to more than 50 per cent of what was arranged before and we believe that is a great achievement. In other words we would be going below the $2 million we were paying monthly, so you know what kind of money we’re talking about,” Prescod said.

“According to what I describe as preliminary information, I believe that we should find ourselves paying below $1 million a month. It was more than unreasonable really for us to be paying $2 million a month for that service,” the minister added.

General manager of the Sanitation Service Authority Janice Jones explained that prior to the debt restructuring, SBRC was owed “over twenty something million dollars”.

She said however, the debt was now in the hands of the Ministry of Finance.