Waste paper recyclers will not be given direct subsidies, an official said yesterday.
While huge hidden subsidies on waste had already damaged the situation, Deputy Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands Kim Salkeld said further subsidies would only compound the problem.
Following the closure of Concordia Paper last month, recyclers have threatened to stop collecting waste paper in an attempt to secure government assistance.
But Mr Salkeld indicated the Government would not give in.
'If they do not collect paper in the end we will accept that, but they do not want that because they will not take any value from it.' He said government subsidies would invite a chain demand at a time when every business was hard hit by the economic downturn.
'Just because you have a problem and I should step in to help, why not help the textile industry and everybody else?' While 300 tonnes were still being processed locally, he said little extra paper had been arriving at landfills since Concordia's closure.
