NOTE: Even
thought this happened over two years ago, the county has done absolutely
nothing to remedy this situation! Thousands of pounds of compostable material is
landfilled everyday!
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Mayor Charmaine Tavares County Councilmembers Ri Department of Health Director Solid & Hazardous
Waste Branch County of Maui Recycling Section:
270-7880
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On Friday March 25th, 2005, without any notice, the Without even a phone call, the This happened because the County Administration failed to require “paper” to be included in the County controlled co-composting project operated by Maui EKO, even though the County made the actual arrangement for us to bring them our paper, two years ago! Instead of simply adding that word “paper” or even trying
to get a temporary waiver/permit to continue until
they get their permits straightened out, they are just going to stop us,
indefinitely, from actually doing something good with mixed paper and force
us to landfill it or find another option. Shaun has been working endlessly since the 25th trying to
find a solution. It has now come to our attention that there are other “permit” problems for the area, that have nothing to do with us, or paper itself, but we are being singled out and penalized instead of the whole issue being properly dealt with. It would be nice if all paper could get recycled and made
into new paper products. But as you know, living on an island, we don’t
have easy access to that industry, which in some ways is good…. But to actually get the paper to the pulp & paper mills that would recycle the paper, the paper must be shipped, which costs a lot of money. To make it worth while to most companies, the paper would have to be purchased by those industries to cover shipping, labor, hauling etc… and actually “make money”. Office paper and newspaper actually have good market values on the mainland, but mixed paper (magazines, catalogs, phone books, brochures, etc.) does not. That is the main reason why other companies and the County itself does not deal with mixed paper. We, at Maui Recycling Service, and most of our clients,
believe it is important to recycle absolutely everything possible! And to
strive for a zero waste sustainable society. To
compost magazines and all paper is the best local solution we have. It is easy
for everyone, so more people are willing to do it, it requires very little
handling, plus it becomes part of a good local compost product in the end. The paper we added to Maui EKO was minimal, equivalent to
less than .01 of the green waste and sewage sludge that is included in the
compost process, yet 35 tons a month is still a lot of paper to just send to
the landfill to be buried. Maui EKO is a wonderful company and has always been very supportive of having paper added to their product. They saw no problem with paper and would be glad to have us bring it to them. Yet, after numerous calls, we have come to a stonewall with Mayor Arakawas' administration, the County Council, the State Department of Health, and the Governors office in trying to get a simple permit or basically any other solution for mixed paper. Interestingly
enough, the mission statement and goals of the Department of Health
are to: ·
To protect
and improve the health and environment for all people in ·
To prevent
pollution and promote and preserve a clean, healthy and natural environment · Promote resource conservation (recycling) And
the County of Maui Department of solid waste… ·
Promotion of
pollution prevention and waste minimization activities ·
To increase
waste reduction and diversion activities throughout the county through
recycling, reuse, and composting... The
Counties Public Works goals: ·
To protect
public health and the environment by reducing, collecting, and disposing
residential solid waste and recovering resources from the waste stream for
recycling and reusing... But
for some reason, no one wants to stand up to the plate and actually go
forward with strong recycling programs… To help make things happen. They all sit back and
watch recycling go backward… Taking the easiest way out. Yes, it does take more effort sometimes to do what is right for the environment, but we believe it is worth it. We
are doing everything we can think of to find a solution to this problem. If
you think this is important too, we ask that you help in any way you can….
Call the Mayor, the Governor,
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Maui Recycling Service P.O. Box 1267 Wailuku, Hi. 96793 (808)
244-0443 Fax (808) 244-0614
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