A win-win situation that requires government regulation to get going

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 23, 2003 By: Jorge Marin

A win-win situation that requires government regulation to get going

Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 10:11:16 -0500 From: Jorge Marin Jorge.Marin@pollak.com To: Editor@vheadline.com Subject: Plastic in Venezuela

Dear Editor: I'd just like to follow up on a comment made by Oscar Heck, that the plastic industry in Venezuela is a natural fit.

One thing I noticed during my travels in Venezuela, is the amount of plastic containers being thrown away, and whereas the people in Venezuela are not ready for recycling on an individual basis there's an incentive that has worked here, in the States, for people to collect this material ... $.05 per soda container.

A system could be set-up with the soda suppliers where they would pay-back to the consumer their deposits, regardless of who collects it.

They in turn would need their plastic container supplier to agree to use the re-cycle material.

• It's a win-win situation, but it requires government regulation to get going.

There's infrastructure set-up in many countries that could be follow as an example.

Yes, Venezuela has all the oil it needs to make plastic, but a re-cycling program would benefit the people at the bottom of the economic scale and it would help to clean up the country as well.

This is a dream, but isn't this the way things begin anyways.

Regards, Jorge Marin Jorge.Marin@pollak.com