Tipping fee and recycling seen as solutions to garbage problem

As Pacific islanders struggle to solve their solid waste problem, implementing a tipping fee and a recycling program have become the most logical choice for some of them to save their fragile environment.

Guam is set to impose a monthly fee of $8 to residents who want their trash picked up, while businesses will be charged $25 per ton.

With the exception of residents, the CNMI is planning to ask businesses to pay for the garbage that they bring to Puerto Rico Dump.

In Marshall Islands, residents pay $1 a month, while businesses are charged $12. Next, year, household fees will jump to $3.

Such plans were taken up by political leaders and island government representatives during yesterday’s discussion on dealing with solid waste at the 18th Annual Pacific Islanders Conference.

“There has to be a way to tell the people that handling their trash is not free. So if people want to avoid paying tipping fees, they have to recycle. The less trash the people throw, the less amount they pay,” Guam Sen. Simon A. Sanchez II told a panel discussion on the solid waste problem in various islands in the Pacific.

Despite the unpopularity of the decision to impose tipping fees, a number of governments have been forced to do so partly to reduce the needed money in managing the dumpsite or building a future landfill.

No one likes to pay higher taxes or fees but people must eventually realize that nothing comes free anymore. If they want to avoid paying tipping fees, they have a choice: recycling or composting.

Rep. Heinz Hofschneider, on the other hand, believes that recycling can only be popular if the local people are made to realize that they can make money out of it. While he thinks that people would eventually be convinced to pay for a certain fee for their garbage, he underscored the need to carry out an educational campaign to change the people’s attitude, especially the young generation.

“Saipan is only 55 miles long and people have objected vehemently to locate the landfill to Marpi. They say it is too far away,” he added.

Since the planned landfill in Marpi, located in the northern part of Saipan, will only have a 20-year life span, recycling is the only way to reduce the amount of garbage that will be thrown into the future dump site.

Solving the garbage problem, finding a place where to dump the waste produced everyday is not a simple thing to do. Officials admitted that politics play a very important role, making things move slowly to the extent of endangering the fragile environment. How the Puerto Rico Dump has grown over the years is a reflection of how the community has tolerated such a situation, according to Guam Sen. Joanne Brown.

In the same way, she said lack of political will in Guam is one reason why the Hagatna government has failed to find a solution on what to do with the dumpsite in Ordot for the past 20 years.

And in a situation like this, Brown said the local people should step in a make a decision on what kind of a community they want to live in. “The initiative, the strength and the courage to have a clean environment has to be your decision ,” she said. After all, the people who gets elected are just a reflection of the community whether you like it or not.