|
<br />
<br /> P/M
<br />
<br /> To: Chairman Pete Hoffman and County Council members
<br /> Date: March 10 2008
<br /> Re: Testimony-Resolution 551-08
<br />
<br /> There are better solutions for Big Island solid waste disposal than incineration. There have been 23 public and private,
<br /> varied-purpose, incinerator plants built by Wheelabrator since 1975. The most recent is a gas-fired plant purchased
<br /> twelve years ago by Simpson Paper Company in Anderson California. There are only 5 full-time employees at this
<br /> plant. On a per-ton basis, recycling and sorting alone, provides at least ten times more jobs than incineration. Add
<br /> composting and mulch production, and the economic benefits out weigh by far the minimal employment opportunities
<br /> provided by an incinerator.
<br /> Within the last 12 years many large communities including Seattle, Boulder and Los Angeles have adopted a zero-
<br /> waste policy. In May 2008, Boulder City Council voted in favor of a resolution stating the city °hereby encourages the
<br /> pursuit of Zero Waste as a long-term goal in order to eliminate waste and pollution in the manufacture, use, storage and
<br /> recycling of materials.' Council members also approved a waste reduction plan to achieve 85% recycling and
<br /> composting in the City of Boulder by 2017. Recycling has made a dramatic impact on the economy of the City of Los
<br /> Angeles, which estimates that the local recycling industry, including collectors, processors, and manufacturers,
<br /> generates over $600 million in sales and employment annually.
<br /> The use of incinerators has been on the decline in the United States. Of the 186 Municipal Solid Waste incinerators
<br /> operational in 1990, only 112 remained by 2003. An incinerator should beat the bottom of the list as a solution to Big
<br /> Island solid waste disposal. Here on the Big Island, solid waste should be regarded as a resource for recycling, re-use,
<br /> compost and mulch production, and to provide jobs, and encourage entrepreneurship.
<br /> The incinerator will contractually require a minimum tonnage per year to generate the electricity to be sold to HELCO.
<br /> Our recycling progress could be reversed and much of our green waste which provides tons of mulch, will likely be
<br /> incinerated to meet the contractual demands for solid waste tonnage. If the required tonnage is still insufficient, we
<br /> could be trucking garbage form Kona or barging it in from Maui or paying fees to make up the difference.
<br /> The waste-to-energy electricity generated by an incinerator will do nothing to decrease our already excessively
<br /> expensive electrical rates. A substantial reduction in electrical rates would be best implemented by a large scale solar
<br /> project which could be built at zero up front costs.
<br /> A significantly smaller percentage of the almost $128 million earmarked by Hawaii County for an incinerator would be
<br /> best spent on a new state-of-the-art landfill and an education program starting with kindergarten on through high school
<br /> promoting the zero-waste culture. Within 15 years this island could be easily diverting 90% of its solid waste from the
<br /> new landfill into productive and profitable enterprises through waste reduction, re-use, recycling, requiring recyclable
<br /> packaging from manufactures, composting, and mulch production.
<br /> Approximately 30% (by weight) of everything incinerated will result in toxic ash which must be carefully disposed of.
<br /> Incinerators waste natural resources, transfer liabilities to future generations and are potentially damaging to human
<br /> health. Incinerators do not eliminate waste, but change the form of waste into hazardous air emissions and toxic ash.
<br /> They are a source of 210 different dioxin compounds, plus mercury, cadmium, nitrous oxide, hydrogen chloride, sulfuric
<br /> acid, fluorides, and particulate matter small enough to lodge permanently in the lungs.
<br /> In 1991, Ontario Canada became the first provincial-level jurisdiction in North America to ban future municipal solid
<br /> waste incinerators. Ontario's Minister of Environment, Ruth Grier, said,'Indneration is inconsistent with reduction,
<br /> reuse and recycling because it relies on a steady, large quantity of mixed waste. Incineration gives the illusion of making
<br /> waste disappear when, in fact, it reappears in different and often more hazardous fortes. Incineration is a superficial
<br /> solution which does not attack the root of the problem." Let's not strap ourselves to huge debt for decades to come with
<br /> a solution that is rapidly becoming obsolete.
<br /> 0
<br /> a
<br /> m
<br /> Jay Kelley 3
<br /> 45 Pakalana St.
<br /> Hilo, HI 96720 ~n .
<br /> 808-961-6851 CAOMM, • o
<br /> Ref. To, Presexl*
<br /> Ref. Data MAR 112008
<br /> G1
<br /> p
<br />
|