2019-10-23 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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Vice Chair Olson said Procter & Gamble have come up with a method for recycling all their polypropylene, and the recycled plastic has caused a 70% reduction in new plastic. If this is taken to its logical conclusion, they’ll be getting back all their plastic from vendors and will suck the plastic market dry. They will be building plants, and he assumes they will be working on other aspects of anything petrochemical that goes into the waste stream. This changes the dynamic. Chair Bennett said waste to energy in many minds just means combustion, and he asked the director if it would require combustion here or whether there are other means of extracting energy from the waste. Director Kucharski explained different waste to energy methods, including incineration and gasification, which have different energy signatures and emission sources. There are a number of waste to energy processes that are not incineration, and on November 5, 2019, the Committee on Agriculture, Water, Energy, and Environmental Management is to have a presentation on a batch process being used on Oahu. Chair Bennett said if the focus is to generate energy from waste, it would essentially preclude recycling the waste for other than energy purposes. The goal, however, is to stop putting waste into a landfill and start using it in opportunistic ways, which may not necessarily be to create energy. Director Kucharski agreed, stating there would be no benefit in creating a by-product they cannot use and shipping it to a processing plant that would leave a big carbon footprint. In his opinion, it is necessary to look at what people are doing holistically. It should not be out of sight, out of mind. Shipping plastics to Asia and not understanding what happens to 90% of it is a problem. They need to look at the carbon footprint of what they are doing. They need to look at what alternatives there are for the small amount of waste this island has compared to places that generate hundreds of millions of tons. The Big Island is a special case, and its waste stream cannot be effectively transported anywhere without expanding and increasing their carbon footprint in the process. The issue of waste to energy needs to be dealt with honestly, and the decision on what to do should not be based on how good it feels, but on what it really means. Chair Bennett said he was interested in learning more about the holistic approach, including waste stream diversion and reuse of materials. Director Kucharski said the updated Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan has a recommendation to look at the different processes and evaluate what they are doing to the environment. Commissioner Burns said it would be useful for the county to have a practical economic analysis done, as there is a plethora of waste to energy technologies. Stability of cost is necessary, as the island is cost-strapped and hidden costs can far outweigh any benefits. Sometimes small steps can make dramatic improvements.