Public Comments and Responses to the IRSWMP (Appendix I) - 2009

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with trash. This is really important to me as a kid, because when I grow up, I don't want the earth to be filled with waste. So, next time you throw something away, think about ways you could reuse, recycle it, and if it's food, compost it. I'm from and I want to change the world." Response: See responses to comments 1. and 2. Lina Mochizuki, student, West Hawaii Explorations Academy "I don't think that expanding the Hilo landfill or trucking other trash to Kona landfill will solve our problem. Our problem is that we produce too much trash, or we can recycle most of it. The way we can fix this problem is to educate people about waste reduction. At our school, we recycle and compost and I think that we are getting closer and closer to zero waste. I hope that we can have zero waste on Hawaii in a couple more years." Response: See responses to comments 1. and 2. 7. Hannah Shimizu, student, West Hawaii Explorations Academy "Do you like Hawaii? Do you? Well I do. Seeing the blue sea and seeing the bright green trees, seeing the sunset as red as a ruby is a rare sight in the world. And we can lose that valuable resource if we are not careful. There are a lot of problems from building a landfill; one of them is that landfills are known to be leaking. This is very harmful and effects the environment, animals, and even people's health. And tourists come here because there are a lot of natural features here, and if tourists stop coming here because it's all trashy, then we will lose business in Hawai i. I think that's a problem for everybody. Thank you for listening." Response: See responses to comments 1. and 2. Wilena Peebles, teacher, West Hawaii Explorations Academy "I think that we need to look at the big picture when we make plans like this. I know that we're having a fiscal crisis, I know that we're having problems, but the population is bigger today than it was yesterday. The population only ever increases, we have minor ups and downs but in the long run, we have a large population increase, and solving this problem will never be easier than it is right now. It's only going to get harder the more people we have on the planet, and if we don't make the hard choices now then my students will have to pay the price in forty years. We're all going to have to sacrifice for them: they're willing to sacrifice themselves, but we need to take this moment to make the hard choice and do some things that we necessarily don't want to do for their future. Thank you." Response: Thank your for your comment supporting making difficult choices now to improve future conditions on our planet. 9. Sarah Bedaris, teacher, West Hawaii Explorations Academy "WHEA is a public charter school, and its mission is to educate Hawai i s children about the environment. One of the things that I've been able to see is partnerships that our school and other schools have been able form with people like Angela Kang from the County who works with all different types of schools. There is a lot of waste just in schools alone. PUBLIC COMMENTS AND RESPONSES APPENDIX IDOC