Executives for a stalled $10.5 million composting project addressed a County Council panel Tuesday, extolling the virtues of a centralized system, while other island recycling groups pushed for a distributed system of smaller facilities across the island.
Kohala Councilman Tim Richards, chairman of the Regenerative Agriculture, Water, Energy and Environmental Management Committee, made it clear early on that after discussion with the corporation counsel, “we will not be touching any conversation on contract negotiations,” testifiers took a different tack, maximizing discussion of the controversial mulching facility planned for Shipman Industrial Park in Keaau.
The county suspended the 2016 contract with Hawaiian Earth Recycling in 2020, citing the coronavirus pandemic. The county is also facing a shortage of critical raw materials, in particular green waste, which is of high demand in East Hawaii, and food waste, which pig farmers have already spoken for.
The plan was to fill the empty trucks coming back from dumping their load of trash at the county’s only landfill, sited in Puuanahulu, with green waste from West Hawaii, which would be processed into compost and mulch for distribution islandwide.
Marvin Min, senior vice president of the Hawaii Division for Hawaiian Earth Recycling , said the 2019 Solid Waste Management Plan indicated that a compost facility was to have been completed in July 1, 2020.
“However, the county continues to push back these dates even though two Environmental Assessments were completed at two different sites and paid for, along with all the design for the new compost facility that was also completed and paid for,” Min said in testimony. “This has cost the taxpayers more than $1 million for all the work put into this compost facility already; design, county’s time, our county council’s time, EA fees, consultant fees, contract negotiations and the time from our community members of the Advisory Commission who had spent hundreds of countless of hours dedicated and giving their time spent to produce this plan.”
An important factor to consider that’s often overlooked, added Gerald Kosaki, general manager of the company, is the centralized composting facility has a 15-day process that’s been shown to kill little fire ants, coffee berry borer and other noxious and invasive pests.
Other testifiers were leaning more toward a decentralized plan.
“Five years ago, I was in full support of the proposed Hawaii County organics facility — which would have been the first of its kind statewide. However, times have changed and we have more information now. Today, I am opposed to this initiative for a single, centralized composting facility,” said Megan Lamson Leatherman. “With the close of the Hilo landfill, we have learned that hauling solid waste around the Big Island is costly (economically and ecologically) and this should not also happen with our food waste.”
(This article has been corrected to indicate Gerald Kosaki, general manager of Hawaiian Earth Recycling, addressed the committee. A p[revious version had an incorrect name.)