In the aftermath of Typhoon Mawar, the community has witnessed firsthand a huge need to address illegal dumping. One of the main solutions to curb this issue came up four years ago during a legislative roundtable discussion on illegal dumping.

Village mayors, who often feel the brunt of illegal dumping, have suggested to implement a mandatory universal garbage plan. Now a bill to make that a reality has been introduced.

It’s a measure that would require all residential households to subscribe to the Guam Solid Waste Authority's trash services. Legislative Committee on Environment chair Senator Sabina Perez presenting her Bill 165 to village mayors during a Mayors Council of Guam meeting this week.

"It actually came from an illegal dumping roundtable that I held in 2019. The mayors were there. And one of the very first recommendations they had was universal collections. Two term’s later, here’s the bill. I apologize it’s a little delayed," she explained.

It’s no secret GSWA has been considering implementing such a policy for a few years now. The agency says about 18,000 residents are unregistered for curbside trash collection. They find that many “piggyback” off paying customers or dump their trash in illegal dumpsites, and it’s costing everyone.

Senator Perez continued, "Half of GWA and GPA customers are not on household collections. So if you imagine if every one of those residents were on collections, that could help cushion the rates. It could help potentially decrease the rates, too."

From lost revenue, a potential rate increase, to illegal dumping harming the environment. It’s a concern that impacts the entire island, including village mayors. "This bill would take some of the burdens off the mayors because you won’t have to deal with the white goods. They’re on a collection service," the senator noted.

But she admits the measure still needs to be ironed out.

Mayor’s Council executive director Angel Sablan suggesting to assess the rates based on how many people are living in a household rather than its square footage. He said, "I see with this bill, the tipping fees would be administered by Guam Solid Waste Authority, and ‘All single family residential units shall be addressed at the same rate’. Two-bedroom, three-bedroom, four-bedroom. And all we mayors here know that buildings don’t generate trash. It’s the people that generate trash. We can go to a residence today with four people in it, next week there will be fifteen people in it, living in the same household."

Mangilao mayor Allen Ungacta agreeing with the suggestion as not everyone will be able to afford it. "That’s very favorable in terms of our manamko’ for example. So with the manamko’, I tell them if you stay next to your son, use his bin because you’re normally one individual, two elderlies and your kids are next door. So I said you can share that expense if you don’t make that much trash. If there’s something in line that could help the seniors, that would be very good," he said.

Perez says the measure includes a customers assistance program to financially support those unable to pay. "That's what we thought about when we were looking at the customer assistance program. We know why some of the reasons why some are not on the collection plan is because of cost. So we want to be able to bridge that gap," she noted.

In the meantime, Mongmong-Toto-Maite mayor Rudy Paco says to truly curb illegal dumping, the law must change to dole out harsher penalties. "We got to stop talking trash and start putting our foot down. Start citing these people and start fining these people. Not just like that individual that dumped up there in latte heights, all they charged them was $200. That’s just a slap on the hand. We should jack up the price because we will just continue to talk about trash if we don’t start enforcing the law," he said.

Perez also introduced a measure to increase the fines for substantial littering violations.