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

Home

Partnerships that we can form at the County level with the State and Federal governments should be coordinated. It seems silly to me that we duplicate so much of the same service. "And speaking of the school, doing energy and waste audits was something that we're going to be doing at our school with the idea of transporting that to other schools so that they can see the amount of waste at a school is tremendous, not just in the cafeteria which all could be composted, but the amount of paper alone could be turned into a business. I'm thinking that there should be more opportunity that the money being spent on this kind of short -term mitigation could be used as seed money or a portion of it to develop new businesses, create more opportunities for small business that are struggling or to support entrepreneurs that have new ideas to develop, but it takes a little seed money, so backing off some of these traditional ideas and opening ourselves up to more creative opportunities in small business parks perhaps more opportunities might provide answers. "The last thing I want to talk about is, that it's really a long way from where most people live to Pu'uanahulu. I don't know how many miles it is but it is a long drive, and every day there's an illegal dump somewhere along there because it's too far for people to even get to Keauhou or Kelakehe. So the point is, for people to go all the way to Pu'uanahulu to deliver green waste especially if they live in South Kona, would be a burden, and the amount of gas that one would use to get there, when we already have overcrowded roads as it is, would almost... it would almost cancel out the benefit from going all the way to a facility that far. Thank you." Response: The ISWMP update recommends working with the state to change collection contracts at schools to allow recycling. The IRSWMP update also supports initiatives to use recyclable materials to make new products within the County rather than shipping them off - island. The challenge is to make remanufacturing work here with the County's relatively small population and geographic isolation. In response to green waste, the County would like to work with the private sector to identify green waste drop -off, mulching and /or composting opportunities closer to Kailua -Kona than at the Pu'uanahulu landfill. 10. Marni Herkes "I'd love to see a letter from the Department of Health that says that you can expand the Hilo landfill before you spend any more consultant money doing this. I was an engineer, I was on the site - selection committee for the Pu'uanahulu landfill site - selection process, and I was on the site - selection committee for the one in Hilo, and the Department of Health said "no, we'll never approve one," so I want you to make them say that they will say that they will approve a landfill in Hilo, or an extension of the one that's there now before you spend any money because that's a waste of money. We don't need engineering studies for when they say "no." I agree about having green waste opportunities closer in than Pu'uanahulu. Sending everyone there is probably the worst thing that you could do, residents and big trucks: don't put us on the road to drive out there, it's not cost - effective. "I wonder if you've thought about working with the private sector on green waste; We have composting programs, we do education, we do a ton of education, we raise money and we provide classes, so that will fit with what you've got. Also, the reuse center, there's a lot of stuff we can reuse. I don't know if you know it, but there is a reuse center at and people that staff the facility tell us whether we can do the reuse or whether we can throw it in the bin, but there's a lot of stuff that's left there, and it's a constant turn -over so it really PUBLIC COMMENTS AND RESPONSES APPENDIX IDOC