Save Kauai brings together current information about Kauai and web-based tools that allow you to take action. If we want to affect the future of Kauai in a pono way we must organize and begin implementing solutions, not just fighting the problems.
Aloha 'Aina, Imua Kakou!
Posted on: Monday, November 17, 2008
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081117/NEWS01/811170358/1001
Hawaii firm wants to keep clean scrap plastic foam out of landfills
Local company wants to keep clean scrap foam out of landfills
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer
KAPOLEI — Wanted: foam waste big and small — from those huge chunks that insulate refrigerators to those smaller blocks that packed your iPod.
Advertisement
Pacific Allied Products, the state's only manufacturer of plastic foam-based roofing material, surfboard blanks, portable ice chests and even those ubiquitous packing "peanuts," recently began recycling its own scrap foam.
The program to recycle foam, also known by its scientific name of expanded polystyrene, or EPS, is proving so successful that Pacific Allied now wants to help other companies and even consumers get rid of their foam as well.
It's a proposal with significant implications in a state where there's a growing push to "go green" and recycle while the debate continues over how to divert waste from Hawai'i's overtaxed landfills.
"Bring your foam and we'll pick it up from here," said Bernie Coleman, president and general manager of the Campbell Industrial Park-based Pacific Allied.
Coleman estimated his company will use 1.8 million pounds of virgin foam material in the coming year.
About 4 percent, or 72,000 pounds, winds up as scrap and until a few months ago, that scrap was going into the city's waste stream.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
http://www.khnl.com/Global/story.asp?S=7334574
"Big Island Beach Attracts Plastic Trash"
Nov 9, 2007
Featured Video
Pollution Spoiling South Hawaii Beach
By Howard Dashefsky
KAMILO BEACH, Big Island (KHNL) -- "A beach that was once a place where Native Hawaiians used to come to find logs for their voyaging canoes, is now a place where tons of trash wind up every year.
A once scenic beach on the Big Island is now a disturbing reminder of pollution spoiling the world's oceans.
It's one of the most picturesque place on Earth. And sadly, it's one of the most polluted. It's Kamilo Beach on the southern tip of the Big Island.
Because it's constantly exposed to the trade winds blowing directly on shore, it winds up being a gathering place for marine debris from all over the Pacific.
Specifically, it's become an accumulation zone for plastic trash.
"Here what were seeing is what all plastic trash turns into as t floats for hundreds of years in the ocean. Plastic fragments" said environmentalist Charles Moore.
What was once a beautiful white sand beach is what Moore and others now call ‘Plastic Beach'. And it is not only on the surface.
"This plastic goes down a foot deep. At one time these were toothbrushes, pens, cigarette lighters, plastic bottles, plastic caps, but now they're plastic fragments and pre-production plastic pellets, together forming a new kind of sand: plastic sand here on the beaches of Hawaii".
In all, tons and tons of debris, and none of it generated here.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Sentiment for transparent, open County Council meetings got the highest vote total of any item or local candidate on the Kauai ballot, even though that was actually a misleading item on the ballot.
The directly, citizen-created Charter Amendment to Implement the General Plan out-polled all of the County Council candidates; further, in a contrary twist, the way that it was presented in full-text on the ballot seemed to work to its advantage. Nevertheless, Kauai voters did vote all the way down the ballot, as all of the amendments elicited more voting than almost all of the local candidates, including 3 of the 6 amendments out-polled even Bernard Carvalho. It helped that the County Clerk sent out the mailer on the Charter Amendments a week before the election to all registered voters.
Noticeable among the County Council candidates is that Ron Kouchi was the only incumbent who was narrowly ousted. Also, Derek Kawakami and Dickie Chang were expected to do well based on campaign funding and name recognition. The surprise was that Lani Kawahara somehow jumped up from the odd person out in the Primary to 5th place and even higher than that when only Absentee and ballot-by-mail was reported, where her margin was created. The most facinating campaign of all of these was Lani's and how she may have made such a huge jump from the Primary to the General Election. A good guess is that it involved targetted support from Senator Hooser and possibly direct mail.
Kilauea recycling center opens today
http://kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/11/03/news/kauai_news/doc490ea0d0bed...
Malama Kaua‘i, the site of the newest of the island’s eight recycling redemption centers, will begin accepting recyclables today in Kilauea. The center is located mauka of Kuhio Highway between mile marker 23 and the Shell Station, about one mile up Ku‘awa Road. Contributed photo by Karen Tang
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By Michael Levine - The Garden Island
Published: Monday, November 3, 2008 1:13 AM HST
KILAUEA — In the latest step toward reducing solid waste and lessening the burden on the island’s landfill, Kaua‘i’s eighth HI-5 bottle redemption center is set to open today in Kilauea, according to county officials.
Operated by Kauai Community Recycling Services, the newest redemption center is located at Malama Kaua‘i, a Kilauea-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to “advocate, educate and drive action towards a sustainable Kaua‘i,” according to its Web site.
“Recycling is a main component of zero waste and it’s one of the favorable components of the county’s solid waste plan,” Malama Kaua‘i Executive Director Keone Kealoha said yesterday. “(The program) is raising awareness of recycling and showing that it’s important. Respect our ‘aina, don’t bury your garbage in it.”
Kealoha said he hoped the facility would serve as a stepping stone to a materials recovery facility and curbside recycling program.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/10/29/opinion/letters_to_the_edi...
Letters for Wednesday, October 29, 2008
"Bernard versus JoAnn"
"By all accounts Bernard is a very nice person: warm and friendly. I would love to see him continue the fine job he is doing with our county Parks and Recreation Department. I would love to see him keep improving the system.
Kaua‘i is faced with many pressing issues right now. Two that have some focus for me are energy and solid waste.
As a founding member of Apollo Kaua‘i, with a mission to promote energy efficiency and conservation and the use of appropriate renewable energy resources, JoAnn Yukimura has been involved and searching for solutions these last three years.
She understands the urgency and has worked towards a solar hot water mandate for new construction. She had the vision back in the ‘90s to create the Kaua‘i Bus. I have not seen Bernard involved at all in the conversation or take the time to attend the most recent outstanding two-day energy conference, even when he was officially running for office. JoAnn was there.
On the issue of solid waste, JoAnn has worked diligently alongside Zero Waste Kaua‘i to promote an aggressive recycling effort to make an immediate reduction in our over-flowing landfill and to promote the reuse of the many valuable resources that gets shipped here.
Computer & Electronics Disposal - October 24 & 25
http://emaginewebmarketing.com/blog/2008/10/ewaste-disposal-kauai/
Do you have old computers, monitors, cpu's or other electronic equipment you
would like to get rid of?
The University of Hawai'i and Apple Inc. are
sponsoring an eWaste Disposal on Kauai on October 24 for businesses and October
25 for residents. Please take advantage of this environmentally-friendly
means of disposing of these [...]
5:00, Blossoming Lotus in Kapa`a, upstairs
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/10/17/news/kauai_news/doc48f8658...
"Candidates support curbside; split over waste-to-energy"
Council hopefuls talk path, general plan and relationship-building
By Nathan Eagle - The Garden Island October 17, 2008
Kaua‘i County Council candidate Ron Agor said he would spend 30 minutes on the issue of allowing residents to walk their pets on the multi-use path when the matter returns to the agenda sometime during the next council’s two-year term in office.
This was 10 minutes less than candidate Christobel Kealoha said she would commit to the issue, which dogged the current council for months before a compromise was reached to allow a trial period along a specific portion.
Thirteen of the 14 candidates vying for the seven seats up for election Nov. 4 attended a political forum yesterday evening at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center. They responded to a semi-lighthearted question about dogs on the path as well as deeper issues such as solid waste, the general plan and fostering a working relationship between the branches of government.
Most candidates agreed increasing efforts to divert materials from the landfill should happen before the county considers a waste-to-energy facility.
KipuKai “Les” Kuali‘i, a community organizer with union backing, said the estimated $92 million incinerator should be removed from the integrated solid waste management plan and replaced with a materials recovery facility that would sort recyclables and turn them into commodities.
