Man hopes to buy car by collecting bottles

Using a handkerchief to partially shield the stench of raw sewage that runs along the sidewalk, Ricardo Osbourne rummaged through garbage searching for plastic bottles for recycling.

Yesterday when THE STAR team passed by the illegal dump site on Asquith Street in St Andrew, more commonly known as 'No Man's Land', it was raining, and the odour was almost unbearable. Osbourne, 23, cracked a smile as he emptied a container of bottles on a handcart. He said that in addition to maintaining himself, his ultimate goal is to save enough to purchase a second-hand Honda Fit motorcar.

"Mi would want mi owna little ride, man. A Honda mi love, so mi a try save fi a little Honda Fit. A just $2,000 mi coulda manage to save so far, but mi a go start push out harder and try make all three trips a day until mi reach di money. Mi probably can get a second-hand one fi all $1 million or less. It may seem far, far out a mi reach now, but mi a go do it, man," he said.

Osbourne is a resident of Rose Town, which is close to the garbage dump. He said that he was introduced to the recycling business by one of his former bosses approximately two years ago.

"Mi deh home and mi neva did a really do anything. Sometimes mi used to get jobs fi chop down trees and ting, and after that mi boss tell mi about the recycling ting, and from deh so mi start collect bottle. Sometimes a mi alone deh out here, but mi nuh 'fraid or anything. Mi just put on mi mask and gloves and go in the rubbish. A nuh everybody woulda go through garbage, enuh, because you don't know what you gonna find or put yuh hand in, but mi nuh mind it still," he said.

As he continues to engage in the search for plastic bottles, Osbourne said he dreams of making it out of the slums through hard work.

"Mi would wah buy two trucks and start a business, too, but mi can't afford it right now. But a dat mi dream fah. Mi have mi own little business, but right now mi a gwan do the plastic ting because if mi make two trip fi a day, mi can make all $10,000. Is a good little business, but a nuh everybody would do it. The scent nuh really bother mi or anything, and mi protect mi hands and face. Mi a gwan do it until mi can manage on mi own," Osbourne said.

A kilogram of plastic bottles is sold at an average cost of $50. In an earlier interview, Recycling Partners of Jamaica Chairman Dr Damien King said the entity has been surprised by citizens' enthusiasm to embrace plastic-bottle recycling.

"What we have to do is to rapidly increase our capacity to process the bottles, which means compacting and bailing them so that they can go on to the next stage of recycling," he said. "But we also need to open more depots. We now have only six depots open and we want to have at least one depot per parish."