COM 0091.000 2008-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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A RESOLUTION URGING THE DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT TO DEVELOP AN ORDINANCE AND IMPLEMENT A PLAN TO PROHIBIT FOOD, PAPER, AND COMPOSTABLE ORGANICS FROM HAWAII COUNTY LANDFILLS BY 2012. WHEREAS, landfilling food and paper is greatly contributing to global warming; and WHEREAS, more than 100 tons of biodegradable materials, including paper products, food scraps and yard trimmings, are landfilled in the County of Hawaii every day. These materials amount to approximately half of our island's discarded resources, and when buried in a landfill, they decompose without oxygen and generate methane, an efficient atmospheric heat- trapping gas and a major factor in climate change; and WHEREAS, methane is understood to be 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide (C02) in causing climate changes over a 20-year period, the amount of time scientists have determined is lefr before the planet reaches the "tipping point" on irreversible climate change. Landfills are the number one source ofhuman-caused methane in the United States and emit the greenhouse gas equivalent of 20 percent of our country's coal-fired power plants every year; and WHEREAS, commercial farming and shortsighted land use policies favoring energy-intensive pesticides, fertilizers, and irrigation water have resulted in dramatic increases in greenhouse gases discharged into the atmosphere for more than 50 years. These practices have contributed to one-third of the increase in atmospheric C02, while causing erosion, sedimentation, water pollution, and the progressive stripping of organic matter, beneficial microbes, carbon, and other essential nutrients from our soils; and WHEREAS, healthy soils are capable of holding twice the carbon stocks of plants Release of soil bound carbon through tilling, unsustainable and other short sighted farming practices cause soils to contribute to, rather than protect against, global warming. These unsustainable methods also compromise the ability of using soil to grow food locally, nutritiously, and sustainably; and WHEREAS, Hawaii currently imports 90 percent of its food and urgently requires the healthier soils that can be produced through diverting organic materials from the landfill and returning the nutrients and organic matter back to farmland to grow its own. This is a critical component of re-creating a more sustainable society on our island; and WHEREAS, the quickest and cheapest way to immediately reduce our community's greenhouse gas emissions and improve the health of soils on the island is to divert compostable organics from our landfills; and WHEREAS, this resolution is in keeping with Resolution 356-07, Draft 2; "EMBRACING AND ADOPTING THE PRINCIPLES OF ZERO WASTE AS A LONG TERM GOAL FOR HAWAII COUNTY", adopted on December 19, 2007; and