By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE collection of junk cars continues and a local recycling firm is still doing it for free, according to owner Eric Cruz.
Cruz said their contract with the Saipan Mayor’s Office ended a few months ago.
Under the contract, Cruz said, the Ericco-Maeda Joint Venture, which is running the Basula Produkto recycling shop, collected abandoned junk cars around the island for $100 per car.
Since the budget for the project was $30,000, the cleanup was to end after Ericco-Maeda collected 300 junk cars.
But because there are still a lot of junk cars littering the island, Cruz said they are now collecting them from willing owners, for free.
“There are still a lot of people calling us to pick their junk cars up,” Cruz said.
He said many residents are calling them up “thinking it’s still for free.”
Cruz said as part of their commitment to community service, they are doing it for free.
He said they still gather an average of 10 junk cars each day.
According to Cruz, they earn $160 from every junk car they collect. Shipping junk cars to Taiwan costs them $25 per 1.2 ton.