By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

ERICCO/Maeda Joint Venture, the firm that operates and manages the Basula Produkto recycling shop in Lower Base, is willing to take over the operation of the government’s material recovery facility which the company says “can barely handle” the materials for recycling.
Eric Cruz, the recycling firm president, said they have a debt to the Division Solid Waste Management which they want to “offset on a monthly basis.”
“We would be happy to sit down and discuss a fair arrangement where the CNMI would benefit from this free service,” he said in a letter to Department of Public Works Secretary Jose S. Demapan.
Cruz, in an interview, said they originally got the contract in 2002 for the processing and exporting of cardboard and other recyclables at the Lower Base transfer station’s material recovery facility.
But in 2005 the contract was given to another recycling firm, which he believes “is not qualified”
According to Cruz, they have been pushing for the extension of their contract with the government.
He said the government is paying the new contractor $17,000 a month for the material recovery facility operation.
The facility processes old corrugated cardboard, paper, glass and tires which Cruz said they had been doing for the government before, at no cost.
He said he does not understand why the administration has to spend money when they can do the job for free.
According to Cruz, “it’s not possible” for the facility to process all the recyclables due to its limited space.
“We would like to make a proposal that we continue to operate the facility at no cost to the government,” he said in his letter to Demapan. “We understand that the government has very limited resources at this time and this would be our way of helping the governor reduce costs.”