PHUKET: Garbage piles up so rapidly on Phuket that the holiday island now holds one million tonnes of trash that it will eventually have to dispose of, an environmental specialist said today.

Jakkrit Songsang, who works for Phuket City Council, told the media that Phuket's garbage was growing at 7.3 percent every year, but the five ponds at the island's incinerator complex were already full.

One of Thailand's senior military rulers, the Commander-in-Chief of The Royal Thai Navy, Admiral Narong Pipatanasai, met with Phuket Governor Maitree Intrusud and other island officials for two hours today about Phuket and its trash.

The meeting was private but outside the room, Khun Jakkrit showed reporters a scale model and told them that although a new incinerator could now cope with destroying 700 tonnes of trash each day, during the high season, Phuket created 900 tonnes.

To repair the old incinerator or construct a new one would cost more than 500 million baht, he said.

Each person on Phuket created eight pieces of garbage a day, he said.

Councils all over Phuket bring their rubbish to the facility at Saphan Hin in Phuket City, and pay 520 baht per tonne to have it disposed on their behalf.

Although the number of resorts continues to grow, Phuket's councils have been slow to introduce a reduce, reuse, recycle program in line with cities in developed countries.

Admiral Narong said after the meeting that the ruling military National Council for Peace and Order hoped to generate a speedy solution to Phuket's garbage problem and create a ''Phuket model'' for efficient handling of trash that could be used in other provinces around Thailand.

The million tonnes of waste on Phuket is stored in five huge ponds lines with plastic to prevent toxic seepage into the water that is on three sides of the facility. Across a canal is a large public park and sporting complex.

On days when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, the smell from the Phuket rubbish stockpile is unmistakable.