Composting a good short term solution

In response to recent letters (July 21 and July 24) regarding shipping trash and consolidating landfills, there is a better short-term solution to Hawaii's garbage problem than shipping it to the mainland.  By banning all paper and organic material from our landfills we would cut our landfill needs in half.  These categories include kitchen scraps, grass clippings, large yard waste, cardboard, office paper and junk mail.

We have the technology and the processors right here for turning these materials into compost.  Meanwhile, we continue to landfill them while importing compost from the mainland.  Materials that can be composted eventually break down inside landfills, creating methane and adding to the cost of maintaining the site.  For more on this proposal, check out the 2002 Maui County Recycling Task Force Recommendations online at http://mauirecycles.com/.

On the surface it may not seem like a big deal to ship garbage across county or even state lines.  However, as a Hawaii resident, I would vehemently oppose a program to accept out of state garbage in our landfills.  I suspect most of my neighbors would also oppose it regardless of all the good reasons there might be for doing so.

Finally, we are not talking about simply taking advantage of a regional mega-dump in this case.  The nearest neighbor state well over 2,000 miles from here.  The cost to ship garbage across the Pacific is exorbitant compared to trucking it into the next county.  I keep dreaming of the day we come to our senses and use local dollars to implement local solutions.

Camille Armantrout, Makawao, July 26, 2004

In response to:

Maui News 7/24/04

The next step in reducing landfill dependency would be to implement a Pay-As-You-Throw program, thereby creating an incentive and a budget to support diversion of all recyclables.  This was strongly recommended by the previous Maui County Recycling Task Force.

Consolidating landfills a trend across the nation

I fail to see the point of the July 10 letter about Mike Gabbard's idea to ship our garbage to the Mainland. It seems perfectly reasonable for our small island to look for creative ways to dispose of our waste.

The EPA has made it clear that states and counties should be moving to mega-dumps to landfill our solid waste. Gone are the days when each county had its own landfill. Now some states such as Washington have been able to close the majority of their landfills and replace them with one or two regional ones. This is good for the environment and easier to manage in the case of problems with leakage, etc.

Chris Tanabe

Makawao

AND:

Maui News 7/21/04

Shipping trash an attempt to buy time for better solution

Let me respond to letters by both those who support my proposal to "ship out" our garbage to the Mainland and those who oppose my idea.

I do not see the "ship it out" plan as a long-term solution to our garbage problem. It is a short-term solution only. This time will allow us to develop an environmentally friendly long-term solution.

Unfortunately, however, at present there are no environmentally friendly long-term solutions which are financially feasible or which our consumerist society is willing to accept. So what are we going to do with our garbage now and for the next five to 15 years?

On Oahu, developers and their powerful allies in the Legislature and on the City Council were about to create a landfill over the Pearl Harbor aquifer which would eventually contaminate forever the drinking and bathing water for 70 percent of Oahu's residents from Waianae to Hawaii Kai. I was successful in passing a resolution establishing an islandwide policy that landfills not be built over aquifers on Oahu. I have communicated with mayors and council members on Maui and other islands about the need to take a similar step.

We need to work together to solve this problem. If any of my fellow environmentalists have a better short-term solution than "ship it out," I would very much like to hear their proposal. I just want to solve the problem.

Mike Gabbard

Honolulu