Think Green Live Clean

Photo Credit: GardenRow

On Monday, the city of Honolulu agreed to incinerate around 20,000 tons of trash, which had been sitting in Honolulu’s Industrial Park for 5 months waiting on orders to be shipped to Washington.  When an incomprehensible amount of trash has to be shipped somewhere else in order for Hawaii not to sink under its own weight in trash, you can see that there is a serious waste management problem.  Especially when a country is thinking of defaming land that sits near an Indian reservation.

The state does have some solutions to remedy the immediate problem:  the 21-year-old Waimanalo Gulch landfill, which will probably close in 2012, and Honolulu’s “H-Power” electricity generating system.  The landfill is filled with trash and trash can be burned in the H-Power machine and be used as fuel for electricity.  Hawaii is trying to take responsibility for its mess, but Waimanalo Gulch will be full by 2012 and the rest of it being used as fuel for the H-Power system will take at least 5 months to disposed of.  In other words, Hawaii is running out of places to put all of its waste.

Officials proposed to ship future waste over to the United States  in a landfill near the Columbia River in Washington’s Klickitat County, but this plan was stopped.  The Yakama Indian Reservation is near this landfill, and after fierce objections, a court ruling took their side.

It’s great that Hawaii is going to try and solve their trash solution themselves, even though it might have something to do with the sensitive nature of the land they are trying to bring the trash to.  But if one little state cannot solve their trash problem, can the world ever be rid of never-ending piles of trash?

Read more about Hawaii taking responsibility here.