Woman grumbles that Ministry of Health has not paid since last July for plastic bottles turned in for recycling

The Ministry of Health is accused of owing a number of residents for
plastic water bottles they collected and turned in under its “Plastic
Waste-Free Island” initiative.

The recycling programme was launched on July 7, 2021, with the
Ministry of Health boasting that, after two weeks, it had collected
over 26,0000 PET code (1) plastic soda and water bottles. 

The object of the initiative was to fight plastic pollution and to
ensure that Antigua and Barbuda reduces its carbon footprint by
recycling plastic bottles; and those taking part were promised 20
cents per bottle.

However, one participant is complaining that she has not been paid
since July last year.

The woman – who says this situation is not fair – claims she has kept
a record of the number of bottles she turned in at a drop-off site. 
She says she is not the only person affected: She has had
conversations with other residents who took part in the initiative,
and they also complain they have not been paid since July 2023. 

Allegedly, some people are owed several hundred dollars, and the
disgruntled woman says she needs her money to pay her utilities.
Critics say that, if true, this will be yet another black mark against
the Ministry of Health, which has been falling short of public
expectation for quite a while now.

Its recycling initiative was held under the tagline “Giving New Life to
Your Trash,” and the bottles collected were expected to be processed
at ABWREC and exported to a recycling plant in  Mexico.

Officials had said that, following this, the bottles would be
processed, converting them back into raw material to  be  used for
new containers.