Beautify CNMI in the News

Saipan Tribune, May 25, 2006

Boosting recycling awareness at Liberation Day
Story by Ferdie de la Torre

The Beautification Group, a coalition of different government agencies and private sector, will join the Liberation activities by putting up a tent that aims to promote recycling awareness.

Christine Parke, executive director of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, told the Saipan Tribune Tuesday that the group's littering and recycling sub-committee has decided that the Liberation activities will be the great opportunity to start making recycling available to CNMI residents.

Parke said they are going to set up a recycling site at Fishing Base in Garapan which is the venue for the June 2 to July 9 Liberation events.

"So we are going to have a tent and there will be banners there as well. There will be recycling containers there. And we are going to encourage people to use these containers instead of just throwing away all their garbage, including their aluminum cans and everything, in garbage. We are going to encourage people that if they have anything that they can recycle like plastic bottles or aluminum cans.they can take it to the clearly identified spots so they can recycle it," she said.

Parke said it will be a chance to really begin recycling on Saipan and keeping the environment much cleaner.

Tina Sablan, waste reduction and recycling coordinator at the Division of Environmental Quality, explained that they are looking at ways for the public agencies and the private sector to collaborate on this beautification effort for the CNMI.

"What we have come to realize is that everybody talks about beautification and everybody agrees that it is important here. And we have different resources, different projects going on. We want to identify with that. We can collaborate and share those resources so that we can [come up] with comprehensive and integrated beautification plans of action," Sablan said.

The Beautification Group is composed of representatives from the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, DEQ, Coastal Resources Management, Marianas Visitors Authority, Strategic Economic Development Council, Zoning Board, Mayor's Office, other agencies from public and private sectors.