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Local firm gets contract to pick up junk vehicles
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Posted on Mar 11 2006
A local recycling firm that had expressed interest last year in helping the Saipan Mayor’s Office solve the problem of junk cars in the CNMI was finally given the task of collecting these eyesores that have proliferated on Saipan.
Basula Produkto, a local recycling company located in Tanapag, has won the bidding to receive abandoned or junk vehicles.
Company president Eric Cruz said his firm won the bidding last month but has yet to be visited by the Division of Environmental Quality for inspection. The previous vendor that handled the collection of junk cars for the Saipan Mayor’s Office was Samkor.
Cruz said the contract is only for six months but the community could expect reliable service from it. He promised to free Saipan from abandoned and dilapidated cars.
Part of his company’s service would be picking up abandoned cars from anywhere on the island. The government will be the one paying for this service and not the owners or those who reported the junk cars.
Cruz is encouraging the public to report all junk cars to Basula Produkto.
Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela said his office has been waiting for the permit from the DEQ to be given to the winning bidder so that they could begin the long delayed project.
Early this year, Tudela admitted that its rundown boom truck caused the delay in the junk car pick up project.
It was reported last year that there are about 15,000 abandoned vehicles in several sites in the CNMI, which could pose a health and environmental hazard, according to former Department of Public Works Division of Solid Waste Management program manager Robert Jordan.
He said the junk cars are not only eyesores but might also contain oil and other harmful chemicals and potential pollutants that could leak and endanger the environment. He added that the number of abandoned cars has been increasing throughout the years.
Basula Produkto is a half-a-million-dollar investment that opened a bigger and new recycling office site in April 2005 at the MAEDA/ERICCO office in Tanapag. A joint venture between ERICCO Enterprises and MAEDA Pacific Corp., Basula Produkto aims to provide the CNMI a recycling site run by a local company.
