Posted on: Thursday, October 24, 2002

EDITORIAL
Sign up now for the 'Tour de Trash'

Normally, we wouldn't be raving about a tour of garbage. But then again, with our landfills running out of space and controversy over which technology to use to reduce O'ahu's growing mountain of trash, residents might want to take the city up on its free "Tour de Trash" on Nov. 13.

As we've said before, the clock is ticking for the Waimanalo Gulch landfill on the Leeward Coast. We want everyone — and we mean everyone — to do their part in reducing their personal garbage.

Meanwhile, we want the city administration and City Council to agree on a comprehensive plan of attack. We suggest several approaches, including expanded recycling, expanded H-Power, plasma arc and the politically unpopular step of scoping out an appropriate site for a new landfill.

But first, it would behoove many of us — including opinion shapers and policy-makers — to take the city's Tour de Trash and see what's already out there.

From what we've read, the itineraries include stops at numerous recycling operations at locations ranging from military bases and hospitals to hotels and Pepsi's bottling facility in Halawa. Check out how businesses are reusing items such as paper, tires, cooking oil and green waste. And find out what happens to hazardous biomedical waste.

What's more, you can get a good look at products made from glassphalt, a lava-like material created by heating trash — including H-Power ash — and breaking it down into its most basic components.

You can tour the Keehi transfer station, where Hono-lulu's waste is unloaded, the H-Power plant, the Waimanalo Gulch landfill, the 'Ewa Refuse Convenience Center, the Honouliuli Wastewater Treatment Plant and walk through mountains of metal at Hawai'i Metal Recycling.

This is not a tour of paradise, but a tour of the operations that keep paradise from being taken over by garbage. Everyone running for election might want to familiarize himself with the present and future of waste management in Hawai'i.

To register for one of the six tours available on Nov. 13, call 692-5410 or check out the Web site at www.opala.org