With Waimanalo Gulch landfill digging itself out of a mess — literally and figuratively — and no alternative landfill site to turn to, the city's plan to ship local trash to the Mainland seems to be a sensible, short-term fix.

And as shameful as it may seem to dump our trash in someone else's backyard, it appears that it's not all that unusual. In fact, folks representing Washington-based Hawaiian Waste Systems point out that Hawai'i is the only state in the nation that neither exports nor imports its waste.

Still, this is no time to get complacent.

Exporting trash should be a temporary solution as the city finds ways to deal with our growing solid-waste crisis. With the troubles facing the Waimanalo site, including fines for environmental violations and a looming permit expiration date, the time to act is long overdue.

As an island state, it should come as no surprise that space is limited — and is becoming increasingly so. Reducing the amount of waste, therefore, must be a priority. On this point, all roads lead to recycling.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann conducted a series of community meetings to solicit public input on curbside recycling. Now it's time to turn those ideas into something concrete. For a new system to succeed, a change in culture must occur, starting from the top: The city must mandate recycling, while at the same time making it more convenient.

Waste-to-energy through H-Power has proven effective, but it should also be revisited, given that the current system is already working beyond capacity.

And during the valuable time that local trash will be shipped away, the folks at Waimanalo should use this time wisely to fix its myriad problems — all of which affect public safety and the environment.

Yes, we've found a fix, for now. But shipping our waste won't fix the real problem.

That's something that must be dealt with right here at home.