SHIPPING OUR TRASH 2,500 MILES IS NO SOLUTION

Congressional candidate Mike Gabbard has proposed shipping Hawaii's trash to the Mainland as a "short-term solution" to our landfill problems (Viewpoint, July 27). I'm surprised by such a narrow, short-sighted, and expensive plan.

We can do better. We should set a goal of achieving zero waste, which means 100 percent recycling, reusing, reducing and composting. No landfills or incinerators required, lots of jobs created locally, and a cleaner environment to boot.

A July 30 letter offered a relatively simple and excellent way to boost our recycling/diversion rate to over 50 percent by composting most of the fibers (kitchen scraps, grass clippings, other yard waste, cardboard, and paper) currently going to our landfills. And some of these fibers, like cardboard, are usually worth enough to bale up and ship to a paper mill for recycling.

Landfill bans are also effective ways to keep other easily recyclable items like glass, aluminum, tin/steel, etc., out of our growing landfills. Mr. Gabbard and anyone else reading this can find information on zero waste at www.grrn.org.

The bottom line is that we need to stop looking at our waste stream as a liability; something to bury in the ground. There are sustainable choices. We need to be creative because we only have so many resources on Earth for an ever-growing population.

Shaun Stenshol

Haiku

217 words

Printed Maui News Aug 13, 2004