CoH: Pay as you throw? $2 per bag?

[Rob Tucker]

Today's Tribune Herald has an article about a proposal for the County to begin charging for trash at the transfer stations. What is mentioned is $2 per bag.

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/arti...ocal02.txt

There is some inevitability to trash fees and the business logic of putting a value - or expense - on trash are incentives to recycle. "Pay as you throw" has some justice to it. Those too lazy to recycle would be penalized and those skilled at recycling would be rewarded.

Here on the Big Island we all sense another inevitability. Trash strewn along the roadways and highways in piles big and small.

The future will require some serious changes to our methods of waste handling. The CoH is not and will not be the only place dealing with this. Fact is that we are decades behind the rest of the nation.

For my part I have to express some admiration for the admin to bring this proposal into the light of day. Takes some guts. It will be slammed. There will be an outcry.

The county is so inefficient in other areas I can wish that the logic applied here in waste handling carried through to other departments and issues.

I am sure there will be interesting comments.



Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator

[dcl]

I understand them wanting to charge for it. I think the better alternative is to put it in with the assessments on property as a line item, then it would be paid for with the taxes instead of at the dumps door. I think if it is left to people to pay as they dump, like was mentioned, we will be seeing even more dumping along side the roads and on others property, which is already happening, it will just be worse.

[Seeb]

This would a disaster. And is plain stupid especially in an economically bad times,are you going to spend you last $2 going to the dump? every back road will be a drive thru trash heap.

[mdd7000]

Friday morning I went to the Pahoa transfer station and was appalled at the amount of trash that had been piled up at the entrance, up against the fence. It was apparently put there either on Thanksgiving day or during the evening hours when the station was closed.

If people are already this callous about their waste disposal, how bad will it be if they actually have to pay to get rid of it?

Most municipalities do either something through property taxes or assessments on a per property basis. It is generally a flat rate per property with commercial buildings exempted, as they have to have their own service contracted out. Additionally, most cities, towns, counties do not operate their own waste disposal collection. They contract it out to the lowest bidder. They may operate or own the landfills, but they stay out of the collection business.

I don't think that I have admiration for the county officials who have conceived of this idea of pay as you throw. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the consequences.

[Samdooby]

I wonder if this does pass and is implemented, will people start to burn their own rubbish?

[pslamont]

I was a little shocked to find an attendant at the Volcano landfill on Thanksgiving Morning turning people away because they were "closed". I thought the idea of closure was to save money. Since there is no gate to be locked there and it is apparently a shared road and therefore can't be locked, they are manning it? And that is saving us money how?

I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says

"Oh Crap, She's up!"

[james weatherford]

The operative term is "responsibility" --
as individuals, families, organizations, and businesses we all have to take more responsibility for the stuff we call garbage rather than just 'throwing it away' and expecting someone else to take responsibility.
There is no 'away'.


James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park

[janeadams]

Our road (Ka'ohe Homestead Rd), prior to the transfer station accepting appliances, used to be LINED with them. I too saw the pile last Friday morning in front of the gate at the dump and was dismayed at people's poor behavior. I know that I've never lived anywhere with county-supported free rubbish stations, but I've also never lived anywhere where people were so callus about the environment and just tossed their rubbish by the wayside.

I also remember seeing some security person at the gate of the Pahoa transfer station the first few times they closed for Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day turning people away. Speaking of way stupid actions...if you can pay the wages of someone to turn people away, why not have the rubbish dump open and let people do the right thing?

Of course, I keep going back to knowing that anywhere else I've lived one had to pay for trash -- either in the form of fees at the landfill or transfer station, or the truck that did curbside pickup as part of municipal utility. I never minded those fees, and have always recycled. Hey, if I have to pay for the dump to take it, and some else a mile down the road pays me...easy choice.

So, I would not object to a reasonable charge, or an add-on to property taxes, to pay for our free rubbish services. Maybe in another generation or two the irrational and short-sighted people who believe that it's OK to dump your crap along the road will cease to be as prevalent.

Jane

[Chuysmom]

I would be willing to pay for a responsible and more efficient recycle program.

The fact is, that there are people who won't pay and will just dump everything anywhere...this will be a real motivator for them to do so - sadly.

Carrie


"The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it." Galadriel - LOTR

[lquade]

well 2 of the problems i have with the solution are the 2 dollars a bag instead of can. do i have to buy a trash bag so i have a bit more plastic to throw away instead of a can i take back and forth? then the new fee to recycle. how will we teach the masses to recycle if we charge them to recycle, especially the green waste. seems like people already throw it on the neighbors lot i cant see that improving if we are going to charge. i guess we should be grateful for the many many years of "free" and pay up now..