DPW mulls trash collection as utility service

Are you willing to pay less than $15 a month for the government to collect trash from your doorstep?

This is part of a proposal by the Department of Public Works for a “universal trash collection” system, wherein government-hired haulers will regularly collect trash directly from homes to solve the widespread problem of illegal dumping.

The proposal cropped up in a meeting by the Solid Waste Task Force yesterday morning.

DPW’s Solid Waste Management environmental planner Robert Jordan said the collection system is similar to the practice in many parts of the United States and other countries.

“Over time, people will get used to it,” Jordan said. “It would be convenient for people, too.”

The proposal incorporates the installation of trash bins in every home. Jordan said there should be three bins in every home—one each for recyclable materials, green wastes, and regular household trash. Government-hired haulers will then pick up the trash from homes on a regular schedule weekly.

Jordan said the task force is still looking at the financial aspect of the project, considering the need to acquire hundreds of bins. He also estimated that hauling services would cost the government about $500,000 yearly.

Under the current system, residents or businesses go to the Lower Base Refuse Transfer Station or the Marpi landfill to dispose of their wastes. Even right now, Jordan said a substantial number of residents and businesses contract haulers to dispose of their trash at the transfer station or the landfill.

Jordan said there are also proposals to erect smaller transfer stations in Kagman and As Lito, but the projects could also be costly. Besides, he said the installation of those stations would not deviate from the current system, since residents would have to go to those stations and dispose of trash by themselves.

“Once this [trash collection] system gets going, it’s going to be effective,” he said, adding that it would be self-supporting, with the minimal $15 a month fee for trash collection.

He said the proposal could be implemented within a year’s time once adopted, allowing the government to sufficiently educate the public about the new system.

Jordan said the proposal would also prevent new illegal dumpsites from sprouting after old dumping sites are restored.

The Solid Waste Task Force has committed itself to restore the sinkhole in Tuturam, San Vicente—a 60-foot-deep, 40-foot wide natural geological formation that has served as a pit for dumping assorted trash for several decades after World War II.

Division of Environmental Quality environmental specialist Tina Sablan expressed concern that, while government agencies are pooling efforts to restore the site and possibly make it a tourist attraction, there is a nearby dumpsite where residents could divert disposal of their wastes.

“The government agencies would really like to see the sinkhole project as a model of involving the community in cleaning up illegal dumping sites and ridding the island of illegal dumping,” Sablan said.

She said the government has already communicated with the owners of the private land embracing the sinkhole, adding that the landowners have consented to the government’s plan to do a cleanup.

Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente, the task force’s chair, has pledged to erect a fence to prevent the public from improperly disposing of wastes at the sinkhole.

Sablan said government agencies—including DEQ, DPW, Coastal Resources Management Office, Saipan Mayor’s Office, and the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service—would soon meet to plan the sinkhole cleanup.