DIRECTOR of the Wisynco Group of companies, William Mahfood, says that if the Jamaica Labour Party-led government agrees to use a portion of its earnings from the environmental levy to finance recycling centres around the island, as much as 50 per cent of plastic waste could be recovered from the environment.

Mahfood, a principal in Wisynco Environmentals, which started the 'Recycle for Life' programme in the late 1990s, says he has already had preliminary talks with Government to that end and is hopeful that it will agree to allow his company to manage the project since the whole country stands to benefit.

"It's not a profitable business but there is use, there is a call for recyclable material and at this point in time, it all is just going into the landfills, the rivers, and into the streams of Jamaica. It is in our interest as a corporate citizen, it is in the country's interest, it is in the people of Jamaica's interest to see recycling start in the country."

Reiterating that the venture was not a money-making opportunity, the Wisynco director said recycling actually costs more money than it makes.

"When we did it, as a company we put up $5 million towards it, as did some other stakeholders. We had a total budget of $25 million but the more money you collect is the more money you actually spend so there is a law of diminishing returns from that point of view."

Since June last year, all imported goods into the island have attracted a 0.5 per cent environmental levy. It is calculated based on the cost of goods, insurance and freight (the CIF value). Goods imported for domestic use up to a value of US$500 (J$35,500 at J$71 to US$1), as well as imports by Government, diplomats and international organisations are however exempt from the tax. This totals more than a billion dollars per year.

Mahfood's plan is to get Government to give over "a couple hundred million annually" from earnings under the levy, so that Wisynco Environmentals can lease lands and set up recycling centres all across the island.

"We went into the [former] Government when they decided that they wanted to apply an environmental levy. Initially, they said they wanted to apply tax on plastics. We said to them that plastic does not make up more than about six or eight per cent of the total waste stream so what about paper and cans and so forth and they said OK. Currently there's an environmental levy which brings into the national coffers somewhere in the region of about $1.2 billion a year. We proposed to Government then to allow us to take a portion of those funds through an expanded model of Recycle for Life... but they weren't interested at the time," Mahfood told the Observer.

But, he points out, given the 20 per cent of total plastic waste the company was able to recover in the four years it was in operation, 50 per cent is not an overly ambitious target.