By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

AMONG the six recycling firms on Saipan, only the Ericco/Maeda Joint Venture has been complying with measures to deter and detect copper theft.
Eric Cruz, president of Ericco/Maeda, the partnership running Basula Produkto, said they have installed surveillance cameras at their Lower Base shop.
Cruz said their monitoring system complies with Public Law 15-36 which regulates the scrap metal business in the CNMI.
He said they also follow strict procedures when buying copper wire.
Anybody who comes in to sell copper wire must present valid identification and fill out a form, he added.
Despite his compliance with the law, Cruz said they have still been able to collect a half ton of copper wire over the past three months.
Ericco/Maeda, he added, is the only Saipan recycling firm run by a local resident.
Cruz said he knows how the other recycling firms are doing their business.
He did not elaborate, but added that his firm is the only one working with the authorities to help curb copper wire theft.
Cruz said even before copper wire theft became widespread, they had already come up with their own “deterrent.”
He said they buy copper wire $1 cheaper per pound than other recycling firms do.
Zhang King of Sam Kor Corp. admitted they don’t have the same procedures that Ericco/Maeda has, but he said they stopped buying copper wire early this year in the wake of the rampant copper wire thefts on the island.
He said they ship their scrap metal to Taiwan.