HomeMy WebLinkAboutRES 826 Draft 01 2006-2008COUNTY OF HAWAII
STATE OF HAWAII
RESOLUTION NO. 826 08
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, aze 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 C02 in causing
climate changes over a 20-yeaz period, the amount of time scientists have determined
is left 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 dischazged into the atmosphere for more than fifty 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 cun•ently imports 90% 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 get compostable
organics out of landfills; and
WHEREAS, this resolution is in keeping with Resolution 356-07; "EMBRACING
AND ADOPTING THE PRINCIPLES OF ZERO WASTE AS A LONG TERM GOAL FOR
HAWAII COUNTY", adopted by this council on December 19, 2007; and
THEREFORE, we agree to phase these materials out of our landfills by 2012, and ask
that Department of Environmental Management staff come back with a plan on how to best
accomplish this and how to work with local agencies to encourage the use of compostable
organics to sustain the health of our soils.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAII to ban
food, paper and compostable organics from Hawaii County landfills by 2012 and that the
Department of Environmental Management is urged to develop a plan to accomplish this policy
and to present it to the Hawaii within six months of passage of this resolution.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the County Clerk shall forward a copy of this
resolution to the Director of the Department of Environmental Management to develop a
strategic plan to achieve the goals in accordance with the terms of this resolution.
Dated
INTRODUCED BY:
2008.
COUNCIL E BER, COUNTY OF HAWAII
COUNTY COUNCIL
County of Hawaii
Hilo, Hawaii
1 hereby certify that the foregoing RESOLUTION was by
the vote indicated to [he right hereof adopted by [he COUNCII. of the
County of Hawaii on
ATTEST:
ROLL CALL VOTE
AYES NOES ABS EX
FORD
HIGA
HOPPMANN
IKEDA
JACOBSON
NAEOLE
PILAGO
YAGONG
YOSh11MOT0
C-1582/FMC
Hawaii, this day of
COUNTY CLERK CHAIRMAN & PRESIDING OFFICER RESOLUTION NO. ~2~ O$