Letters | 8-6-14

Proposed incinerator a bad choice for island

Proposed incinerator a bad choice for island

Just having returned from a monthlong mainland trip, I found that the waste-to-energy controversy has reached a boiling point. I just read recent commentaries by Hunter Bishop and Nelson Ho; like them, I too worked for the Department of Environmental Management during the Mayor Harry Kim administration. If nothing has changed in the incineration world, why are we even having this conversation? In case anyone forgot, the County of Hawaii has a standing Zero Waste Resolution adopted in 2007. A previous County Council voted down incineration because of its forever money-sucking maintenance issues. So, why is our mayor, if he truly loves the Big Island, insisting on shoving an incinerator down our throats?

As a county worker I learned that companies selling waste-to-energy burners get island communities to buy into them because once installed the company can garner huge fees year after year. While in county employ, I spoke to a representative of the Cayman Islands where one of these burning beasts was pedaled. She stated how much it costs them and wished they had gone a more sustainable route. Incineration is old technology. Island communities are special worlds; the Big Island being more so since we already have a natural chemical emitter, the volcano.

The Big Island has a chance to show that a zero waste approach to deal with our disposables as resources works.

Everywhere I traveled, people are thinking sustainability. Communities are recycling more as they see the value in metals, mulch, paper and plastics, to the point that old landfills are being mined to get these resources.

Voters, educate yourselves on where the current candidates for County Council stand on this issue. The council will decide the fate of our waste issues, not Mayor Billy Kenoi.

Linda Damas Kelley

Hilo