PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP NEEDED FOR PHONEBOOKS

Once again Maui is burdened with the waste from an out-of-state company. I refer to the recent distribution, by AdVentures of Blaine, Washington, of the third phone book in as many months to our residents and businesses.

I spoke with Crystal in the corporate office in Blaine, asking her what the company's plan was to recycle their obsolete phone books. Her response was, "Take them to a recycling center." When I told her Maui doesn't have such a thing, she said, "You've got to be kidding!"

No, unfortunately I'm not kidding. We have no recycling center, reuse facility, MRF (materials recovery facility) or any choice but the landfill for most of our imported waste such as old phone books.

The phone book's sales department told us they distributed 80,000 books on Maui alone, not including Lanai and Molokai. At 2 pounds apiece, that’s 160,000 pounds of books that will ultimately end up in our landfill. That's 80 tons!  

It's time we stopped allowing off-shore companies to export products to our state without demanding that they take care of the resultant waste. A good example to follow is California's new "product stewardship" legislation.

Joy Webster