IMPORTED RECYCLED PLASTIC TABLES FOR MAKENA STATE PARK?

On a recent trip to Big Beach, I noticed a new plastic picnic table.  Thinking this might have been made locally from recycled milk jugs, I had a closer look. Imagine my surprise when I found that the table had come all the way from Cherokee, Iowa.

When I got home, I went to http://www.pilotrock.com/ on my computer and

found that this bench was manufactured from recycled plastic.  Curious, I called up our local recycled plastic processor, Aloha Plastic Recycling, and asked them why one of their benches wasn't sitting down at Makena State Park.

They told me that the local contractor for the Makena project had originally approached them for a quotation on a similar picnic table even though the State bid specifically called for a Pilot Rock table.  The contractor felt that he would be able to persuade the State to use a local table rather than have one shipped in from the mainland.

Aloha Plastic put together a quotation for the contractor and while they were at it, they got a quotation from Pilot Rock.  The Pilot Rock table, with shipping was more expensive than the Aloha table.  Despite these efforts, the State went ahead and bought the imported table in the end.

My questions are: 1) Why would the State want to pay more for an imported table? And 2) How can the State of Hawaii say it supports recycling when they are importing recycled plastic furniture?

Bob Armantrout

Makawao