Proper disposal of solid waste on the island\u2014especially those left by Typhoon Soudelor\u2014became the center of discussion of the first meeting of reviving the people-centered group Beautify CNMI!<\/p>\n
The core group, which answered former representative Cinta Kaipat\u2019s invitation to attend the meeting, agreed that some of the problems that the community is facing right now is garbage left by those who spend weekends at the beach or trash dumped in random places by some people <\/p>\n
Beer and soda cans, plastic bottles, disposable plates and utensils, cigarette butts, boxes, straws, burger wrappers, diapers, and other household thrash are the regular things collected during beach cleanups.<\/p>\n
Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) said the challenge right now is how to keep one area clean and some people don\u2019t have the money to get the services of a trash collection agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as you finished cleaning up one place, trash would appear in another. Either illegally burn it or throw it somewhere else,\u201d said Propst, who together with Rep. Vinnie Sablan (Ind-Saipan) are thinking of possible laws that they could file at the Legislature.<\/p>\n
\u201cFunding is an issue when it comes to universal trash collection. The Mayor\u2019s Office could not do it since they are also underfunded,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Sablan added that they would also look into increasing fines for those who will be caught littering and file more environmental bills. He authored House Bill 19-27, which aims to encourage the use of eco-friendly bags and to slowly eliminate the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags.<\/p>\n
The CNMI also has the Commonwealth Litter Control Act or Public Law 6-37, signed by then governor Pedro P. Tenorio in 1989.<\/p>\n
PL 6-37 imposes a $200 or not more than $500 fine for any person found to be littering and will be ordered to pick up trash under the supervision of the Department of Public Safety or any agency ordered by the CNMI Superior Court for a period of not exceeding eight hours.<\/p>\n
It also listed that designated employees of the then Marianas Visitors Bureau (Marianas Visitors Authority, Department of (Lands and) Natural Resources, Coastal Resources Management Office, Department of Public Health and Environmental Services, Department of Public Works, the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office, and DPS as apprehending officers.<\/p>\n
However, Kaipat said, the anti littering law and litter control education ran into some problems and opposition. \u201cSome law enforcers think the fines are too steep and they don\u2019t want to give out fines since they know the person who violated the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan) has introduced HB 19-26, which hopes to improve enforcement of the litter control program and reducing the fines of $200 or not more than $500 to $25 and not exceeding $5,000. Both HB 19-27 and HB 19-26 have passed the House and are now in the Senate.<\/p>\n
Commonwealth Advocacy for Recovery Efforts director Jenny Hegland, whose group has been doing village cleanups since October, said that there is a huge need of cleaning up the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is great timing [reviving Beautify CNMI!] because what I see is there\u2019s a huge need of village cleanup. We\u2019ve been helping sort out typhoon debris since September, as much as possible we want to get rid of these since they are safety hazard if another typhoon comes. We\u2019re canvassing neighborhoods that still have typhoon debris.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Proper disposal of solid waste on the island\u2014especially those left by Typhoon Soudelor\u2014became the center…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54,1860,194,1882],"class_list":["post-220253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-agency","tag-hb","tag-house-bill","tag-public-works"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}