2020-02-26 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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from stopping the recycling of #1 and #2 plastics, but people have been told the money has already been spent. There needs to be a 10-year program to fund e-waste to get it off the island, as it contaminates the ground, water, and starts fires. The Television and Electronic Recovery Act says a covered entity is any business, government, school, or nonprofit. The act was revised in 2017 to allow the county to create its own program, but not to change a covered entity. Regarding cardboard and glass, glass is already taken care of by another fund, so the county should not fund it. Some of the cardboard waste could be used on the island for mulch and weed-killing rather than being shipped. As we live on an island, the cost of shipping waste is prohibitive. Roy Kadota: He is the owner of Mr. K’s. The e-waste problem is here to stay, and it needs to be addressed in the 10-year program, as his staff has explained. Maui County was able to contribute $210,000 toward e-waste, and they did it because they don’t want it in their landfill. There are ways our county can come up with money for it. There should also be a diversion fund to get plastic off the island, as it takes a lot to ship it. There was a fund previously, but former Mayor Kenoi did away with it. His employees have said it all, so he’ll leave it at that. Kristine Kubat: She is from Recycle Hawaiʻi and wanted to remind the commissioners about the $400,000 the county saved from the rollback of recycling services provided by Business Services Hawaiʻi. At the last meeting, the commission voted to send a communication to the County Council, saying they supported keeping the money in the recycling budget. That communication has never been sent, and she would like a commitment from the commission that it will be done. After the rollback of the recycling, if the electronic waste recycling gets cut, it will not be pretty, and people might take matters into their own hands. There is also the question of whether it is legal for the director to have reallocated money that is in a line item to something else without authorization or permission from the council. Some people have told her it is not legal and some say it is, so she is requesting clarification from Corporation Counsel on this. Regarding the draft Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, it has many punctuation, spelling, grammatical, and computational errors. The county is paying for it and deserves a high quality end product. Also, there was a decision made not to do a waste composition study. When she brought this up, the response was that it these studies are not very accurate and it was unnecessary to know everything that is in the waste. This is not true. These studies are done all over and are accurate and important. The plan that is supposed to guide us for the next 10 years is based on a study that was done in 2008, and a portion of it was done in 2001. An up-to-date waste composition study needs to be done. Chair Pequeño called up Sandra Demoruelle for her testimony and informed her, for the record, that he had received her written request for information on the Nāālehu and Pāhala ʻ Wastewater Treatment Plants. However, the commission does not have the records or information she is seeking, so her request has been forwarded to the department. Sandra Demoruelle: She thanked the commissioners for their service and efforts. She wanted to remind everyone that in October, Chair Bennett began a conversation on changing the public testimony portion of the agenda by adding a statement about what is wanted. She 4