Car crusher arrives on Guam, government looks at scrap shipping

A mobile car crusher is now on Guam to help deal with the widespread junk car issue, but the government will have to figure out what to do with the cars, once crushed.

The $480,000 crusher arrived in late February, and staff were trained up on the machine on March 5, Guam Solid Waste Authority General Manager Irvin Slike told the GSWA board during their latest meeting.

With the crusher now on island, GSWA is looking at the most effective way to get rid of the scrap produced, Slike told board members.

“The easy part is crushing cars. The hard part is figuring out what you do with them afterwards,” he said. “My recommendation is, let’s find out where they go first before we start flattening cars.”

GovGuam wants to crush junk vehicles because they are cheaper and easier to transport once crushed.

Vehicles left over the island’s aquifer in Yigo and Dededo also produce hazardous chemicals, especially when set on fire, and the crusher can catch those chemicals.

As of Oct. 10, GovGuam reported spending $780,700 in fiscal year 2024 to dispose of junked vehicles.

But Slike told the Solid Waste board that the one company found to handle junkers on Guam, Global Recycling Center, prefers to have vehicles that can be stripped for parts.

“They disassemble them. When we crush them, we leave them in a state that they’re not really able to handle,” Slike said.

He said the vehicle engines and chassis are more valuable in the Taiwan market, where Global ships its scrap.

Global is interested to see if any flattened cars can have their engines removed, Slike said. The company also requires that upholstery, batteries, and tires be removed.

He suggested that Solid Waste crush a few of burned out vehicles and ship them to Global to be worked on.

For non-burned cars, Department of Public Works excavators can be used to strip out upholstery, to see if Global will take them, according to Slike.

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Global could potentially take about 10 cars a day, he said.

In the meantime, GovGuam can go out to bid to find a way to ship the cars off-island.

Slike said he’d identified recyclers in Brisbane, Australia and Fiji that could take crushed vehicles as-is.

Crushed vehicles would be piled up in open-top containers for transport, Slike said.

“Ideally, it’s about $4,000 to maybe $4,500, if you do a multi-year contract, that’s my estimate for the price to ship a container,” he said.

But final prices will have to be worked out through procurement.

The Brisbane company identified would pay Guam $110 per metric ton of junkers, according to Slike.

That would equate to an estimated $15,000 for every 150 cars shipped to the company, he said.

Adelup rolled Solid Waste, the Guam Environmental Protection Agency, and DPW into a task force meant to tackle the junk vehicle problem.

Previously, it was left to village mayors, who complained of long disposal times and a clunky bureaucratic process.

Guam law last year was changed to require that DPW and GEPA assist village mayors with the problem.

Solid Waste bought the car crusher with federal American Rescue Plan funding.

Slike in December said the junker task force is creating a plan to clear out the “low-hanging fruit” with the crusher, and a long-term plan for dealing with the island’s junk car problem.