Shipping Hawaii's Trash to the Mainland

[Guest]

Well it looks like Honolulu is going to start shipping trash off to Oregon according to The Oregonian

That's one way to get rid of it I guess.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Agriculture Department released an environmental assessment proposing to allow shipment of up to 500,000 tons of Hawaiian trash -- 100 barge loads -- each year to landfills in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It outlined standards to keep pest species out of the region.

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Lower your expectations and be ready for anything.

[Adam79]

Wow that is surprising considering those states regularly show up on lists of "greenest" cities and states. I suppose all 3 do have lots and lots of unoccupied land. Well I grew up in Washington and later Oregon and have family in both states so I will try even harder to make sure I'm not dumping my trash on them. As it is me and my wife work pretty hard at it (me more than her). Between recycling and composting, we barely fill up one bag per week. It is amazing how little waste you can produce when you are conscious of it and make an effort. When we lived in Oregon and had weekly trash pick up we had no problem filling an entire can and sometimes overflowing. To me, a couple with no children should really have no problem staying at one bag a week or less. It may take some simple changes in habits but not really drastic ones. Honestly, we could probably cut it down even less if we eliminated our paper towel use altogether and bought groceries with less packaging such as bulk items.

The biggest challenge is packaging on products. Well at least packaging that is not recyclable. Though even if it is recycled, it still required resources to both produce and recycle. I would love to see some kind of legislation to reduce the amount of packaging and/or regulate the type of materials that are used. In most cases the size of the packaging is very disproportionate to the size of the product itself. This usually serves no purpose other than aesthetics.

I hope people realize they don't have to become "hippies" to make a difference. Just ask yourself "Can I do more?", then decide what you would actually be willing to do, and most importantly, do it. I'll step down off my soap box now.