ASPA will take over house-to-house solid waste collection beginning next year
The American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA) will begin house-to-house solid waste (or garbage) collection for residential homes beginning Jan. 2, 2009.
For about the past ten years, residential and commercial solid waste collection services have been performed via no-bid contracts by two local contractors. Over a year ago, ASPA announced that it planned to bring these services in-house upon expiration of the current contracts. ASPA conducted a cost/benefit analysis of in-house collection versus outsourcing and determined it to be a significant cost savings measure benefiting all of its customers.
“This spring, ASPA intends to rebalance its rates to better reflect the true cost of service for each division,” said ASPA Solid Waste Division Manager Petero Lafaele. “This has been an ongoing criticism we are attempting to resolve through our rate study. In the meantime, we are doing everything possible to reduce operating costs to lessen the impact to the customer.”
ASPA CEO Mike Keyser added: “Think of it this way: Our actual cost of outsourced collection is $15 per home. We currently charge $3. If we rebalance the rates right now, the customer’s rate will increase by $12. But if we reduce our costs by taking solid waste in-house, the impact to the customer might only be $2 to $4 dollars. It is that significant.”
With federal grant assistance from the U.S. Department of the Interior, ASPA recently purchased two new automated side loader trucks for its house-to-house solid waste collection. ASPA is also expecting three flat bed trucks for collection use in the outer villages as well as areas in which the side loader trucks cannot access.
Keyser said: “We are indebted to Mr. Jack Kachmarik, Lydia Faleafine-Nomura and Jonathan Dunn for DOI’s financial assistance in making this business plan a reality.”
ASPA will begin residential solid waste collection on Jan. 2, 2009 and commercial and communal village bin solid waste collection services on April 1, 2009. The schedule for all the routes for residential solid waste collections will be published in the local newspapers beginning Saturday, Dec. 20, 2009.
Lafaele said ASPA Solid Waste Division conducted a survey of Tutuila and subsequently developed new collection methods by dividing villages by routes in order to ensure that all customers - including those residing in outer areas or with narrowed access roads – will have their trash collected in a timely manner. He said ASPA has hired 12 new employees for this first effort.
Lafaele said that the demand for solid waste collections have increased over the years and therefore frequent trash collections are needed in order to meet the demand and improve services to the customers. This is why residential trash collections will be made three times weekly on all routes throughout the island, he added.
Collection services will take place as early as 5:30 a.m. daily.
“We hope for a smooth transition and we hope that the increase in collection services per week will reduce overflow of trash on the roadside as well as improve our services to residents of American Samoa,” said Lafaele. “We also ask for the public’s understanding should there be any unforeseen hiccups during this transitional phase.”
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