CLEANUP volunteers found fewer soda and beer cans at the beaches and other public areas over the weekend, Islandkeepers CNMI founder Noriko Baidya said.
She said she and her team noticed a significant reduction in the number of aluminum cans they collected during the recently held islandwide cleanup.
Baidya and her team conduct frequent cleanups at beaches and other tourist destinations.
“What is very interesting is that since the government started converting aluminum cans into cash, the littering of aluminum cans has been drastically reduced,” she said, referring to the Recycling Redemption Initiative.
Division of Environmental Quality Director Zabrina Cruz said there were fewer aluminum cans collected in this year’s cleanup in “almost every area.”
The Recycle Redemption Initiative, which is federally funded, is a partnership between the Office of the Governor, the Office of Grants Management & State Clearinghouse, the Bureau of Environmental & Coastal Quality, the Office of Planning and Development, the Zero Waste Task Force, and the Department of Public Works.
The program offers an incentive of five cents for each aluminum can collected from April 1 up to Aug. 31, 2023.
Saipan residents can bring their aluminum cans to the Artman Corp. drop-off center on Chalan Sisonyan Road in Tanapag on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
To contact Artman Corp., call (670) 234-8079 or (670) 287-9079, or email artmancorporation@gmail.com/.
For more information about the initiative, contact Flor Deleon Guerrero of the Office of Grants Management & State Clearinghouse at (670) 285-9284 or email fguerrero.ogm@gmail.com/.
