HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0064.133 2010-2012Yagong, Dominic
From: midpacaq @hotmail.com
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 2:18 PM
To: dyagong @co.hawaii.hi.us
Subject: Fw: Wake up
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Red
Sir
Page 1 of 3
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PLO LTC i-I11d
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I am sending this to you in the hopes that you will wake up and understand that we
the people enjoy plastic bags. We re -use them over and over and I hope you will
read what is written below.
It is a shame that our county council has nothing more to do then to find ways to
make living on this island harder and harder with the wasteful money you spend. If
you have so much money for all the studies you have had then how come we still
have furlough Fridays.
You have wasted $700,000.00 on trucking garbage studies. Is it so impossible that
you cannot use common sense. Heavy trucks will cause wear and tear on the
roads. They will create over use. If one of them flips over what is going to happen
with the environment. Are you going to have an environment impact study? I think
not. But then, that is just one of the stupid things that happens when the council
meets.
I would recommend that we do away with the council. Let the Mayor hire a
company that does studies. If something is good he can pass it into law. Look how
much money we would save. Right now we pay and pay for studies that in reality
are just plain stupid.
Anyway, I hope you will read this and understand, plastic is not the evil engine that
Hoffman and the rest of this unacceptable council thinks it is.
•
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1) Contempt of the people. The tyranny of a mere 5 people (a majority of the
council) will decide again how EVERYONE ELSE should behave, without even the
courtesy of asking our permission. At a minimum, before a handful of officials decide
how we all should live the most tiny details of our lives, they should put such
decisions to the vote of all the people in referendum. Not doing so reflects their
arrogance and the contempt with which they view their neighbors.
2) It will increase the cost of living and make life just a little bit harder for everyone.
Comm. No. Go 4.1”
Ref. To: °•ftseeM� pa"
04 Date JU1 itf
6/7/2011
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In these severe economic times of hardship, shouldn't our government be making
our lives easier and less expensive, not the other way round?
3) There is NO scientific logic to banning plastic bags that will survive an honest
appraisal.
A) Paper bags cost 10x more than plastic, weigh 6 x more (i.e.: more expensive to
transport) , take up 10 x the volume (more expensive to store and more space in
landfills), use 50 x more water in their production than plastic, and produce 3 x the
CO2 during their production (Multiple sources). Plastic bags use 40% less energy to
produce and generate 80% less solid waste than paper, according to United States
EPA .
B) Plastic bags are 200 times less damaging to the climate than cotton hold -alts
(Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags, by Dr Chris Edwards and
Jonna Meyhoff, British Environment Agency, 2007)
C) There is NO scientific basis for claiming plastic bags are a significant ocean
contaminant. The so called "Pacific Garbage Patch" was sampled by transit by
Oregon State marine scientists, and NO plastic bags were either seen or recovered.
The total plastic skimmed barely filled the bottom of a coffee cup, and consisted of
fine particulates none of which were shown to be plastic bag origin. The "Pacific
Garbage Patch" is an exaggerated myth, with no scientific credible and confirmed
data. Angelicque "Angel" White, an assistant professor of oceanography at Oregon
State compares the amount of plastic found to the amount of water in which it was
found: "If we were to filter the surface area of the ocean equivalent to a football field
in waters having the highest concentration (of plastic) ever recorded," she said, "the
amount of plastic recovered would not even extend to the 1 -inch line."
D) There is NO credible and confirmed scientific data that plastic bags are a
significant threat to marine wild life. The widely circulated photo of a turtle with a
bag in its mouth is not science, and could even have been staged. This is not a
sufficient basis to cause a change in an entire society's actions. Severe actions
require severe proof to be justified. A London Times article has exposed as a myth
the claim that large numbers of marine mammals and seabirds are dying from
ingesting plastic bags. In a report by the US National Ocean Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), the authors state (at page 9): "There are very few, if any,
published records of small plastics as the direct cause of mortality in sea turtles."
David Laist, a senior policy analyst with the federal Marine Mammal Commission,
has stated: "In their eagerness to make their case [against plastic bags], some of the
environmental groups make up claims that are not really supportable."
E) plastic bags are NOT the most prominent source of litter on our island. A recent
litter retrieval project of our shoreline was reported to show that the #1 litter was
cigarette butts, followed by paper bags, paper cups, and paper in general. Plastic
bags were well down the list. The San Francisco Department of the Environment
litter audit conducted before plastic bags were banned in that city showed that
plastic retail bags were 0.6% of all litter. The Florida figure is 0.72 %. The Toronto
figure is 0.13% (see page 35 of Toronto study).
6/7/2011
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F) Plastic bags blowing around the land fill is not a sufficient reason to make the
entire island change their preferred behavior, unless the people vote on such. Litter
at the land fill is what is expected at a landfill.
G) Reusable shopping bags unless washed daily and not allowed to touch the
ground will harbor unsafe levels of bacteria and are a heath hazard compared to
clean single use plastic bags. Placing such bags on grocery checkout counters can
transmit the bacteria to the next customer's food
H) plastic bags have many more practical uses than paper, as they are water tight,
lighter, durable, stronger and more likely to be re -used.
4) After they are successful in banning plastic bags, they won't stop there. A recent
local news article describes a push in Seattle to ban paper coffee cups and require
reusable cups. Where does this madness stop?
So you see, plastic is not the problem. The county council is.
John Gallipeau
Honomu, Hawaii
963 -6792
6/7/2011