Guam Solid Waste Authority board members reviewed the timeline Thursday for islandwide trash collection, but one question still remains.
How will the agency handle customers who don’t pay their bills?
Garbage and recycling bins for the 21,000 new customers should be distributed beginning next summer, and the process should be complete by April 2028.
Solid Waste Board Chairperson Andrew Gayle said he continues to mull the options for people who don’t pay.
“Do you not collect their trash? Do you try to collect money some other way?” he asked. “Do you still collect their trash, but collect some money some other way? Do you know, you know, put a big scarlet letter on their trash bin?”
Under the current voluntary trash collection system, if a customer doesn’t pay, trash isn’t picked up.
Under the mandatory system, the agency will be collecting garbage for households that don’t necessarily want their trash picked up.
The 21,000 new customers are people who currently choose not to pay for trash collection.
“If we move this to mandatory now, we're telling people, ‘You need to pay your fair share.’” Gayle said. “Now, what do you do when they don't pay? Yeah, so apparently we've gone through the route of, you know, can you do garnishment? Can you do tax liens? You do something like that, and those routes may require additional legislation.”
Gayle said whatever route the agency decides to take, board members should plan to evaluate it for six or 12 months, then make adjustments if necessary.
