TIPPING fees at the Puerto Rico dump will be increased by as much as 250 percent per ton, and these rates will be further raised once the $10 million Marpi landfill project opens in December.
Garment waste, for example, would be charged $35 per ton, instead of the current $10 tipping fee.
The current $10 tipping fee for household or municipal solid waste would be increased to $25 per ton.
“From the very beginning, the tipping fee was proposed to be increased up to $40 to $50 by the time the landfill is open because that’s what it requires to operate the Marpi landfill,” Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente told Variety last week.
Benavente, who also chairs the CNMI Solid Waste Task Force, said the increase in tipping fees is not something that the government “just decided now.”
“We have been able to charge the $10 because we really didn’t have a solid waste management system. We’ve been able to dump and pollute the Puerto Rico area as well as the lagoon and the ocean. But to protect the environment and to have a real solid waste management system with a landfill, then we need to charge more,” Benavente said.
Public Works Secretary Juan S. Reyes said the tipping fee hike “more accurately reflects the actual costs” of solid waste management, which may include recycling.
“Further, the increase brings the fees charged by the commonwealth more in line with fees charged in similar jurisdictions including Guam and Hawaii,” Reyes said.
He said the varied fee schedule reflects the increased costs in manpower and equipment involved in the handling of garment and hazardous waste.
Reyes said the fee schedule continues to exempt small loads to minimize the costs to most residential disposers.
For example, three or less drums of household or municipal solid waste will only be charged $2.
For the same volume of garment waste—as well as special waste and construction and demolition waste—the tipping fee would be $4.
Efrain F. Camacho, a businessman and former president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, expressed support for the government’s proposal to raise tipping fees, adding that it is “long overdue.”
“What we should also be concerned is, who puts the most burden to the dump? It seems the garment industry is the main contributor so they should pay more,” Camacho told Variety in a separate interview.
Camacho added, “This has nothing to do with driving away the garment industry, but this is all about responsibility to the environment and the community.”
Richard A. Pierce, executive director of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, said the government is making the right decision by raising the tipping fees.
“As long as the government can justify the increases and as long as there is no discrimination with the rates, then we don’t have any problem with that,” Pierce said.
He said if the garment industry takes more space at the dump, or if the toxic waste would need a more specialized process, then the government has the responsibility to charge them more.
Benavente said the tipping fee for garment waste is “justified.”
Camacho recommended that the government should also come up with a law mandating the collection of garbage from every household and business establishments.
“That should be mandatory. Perhaps 10 percent of the generated money from the tipping fees should go to the waste collection,” Camacho said.
The government published these proposed solid waste collection disposal regulations in the Commonwealth Register on May 20.
The public has been given 30 days to submit comments on the proposals.
Benavente said the required “financial assurance” needed to secure a permit to operate the Marpi landfill would be financed by the tipping fees and appropriations from the Legislature.
The Division of Environmental Quality’s new regulations give it the authority to require permits for the operation of any solid waste facility, including the new landfill in Marpi.
“There would be changes in the tipping fee for different materials that are being dumped presently in Puerto Rico dump, which would also be the same case if we are going to dump in the Marpi landfill,” said Benavente.
He said the tipping fees may be increased to $40 or $50 per ton by the time the landfill is in operation.
Benavente said the government has been able to prolong the life of the Puerto Rico dump due to diversions and other processes.
