A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Hawaii is contemplating a novel approach to spreading the aloha spirit — by sending its garbage to Oregon.
The city of Honolulu, which is fast running out of space at its main landfill, has hatched a plan to send container ships full of garbage across the Pacific to the U.S. mainland. One option is to send garbage up the Columbia River to Rainer, where the contents would be transferred onto trucks or trains bound for the Columbia Ridge Landfill near Arlington in Eastern Oregon.
As imports go, garbage isn’t exactly a high-value commodity that states are lining up to pursue. In fact, most states are more interested in getting rid of their municipal solid waste than in bringing it in. Oregon, on the other hand, has tapped into demand for landfill space and is now the fifth largest importer of garbage in the country. Oregon owes its leadership in the garbage industry primarily to Seattle, which sends more than 2 million tons of trash a year to Columbia Ridge by rail on what is affectionately referred to as “the perfume train.”
It is ironic that a state that prides itself on environmental consciousness and sustainability has gotten into the garbage business in such a big way. Oregon, which pioneered the Bottle Bill in 1971, has gone to great lengths to position itself as leader in the environmental movement. Oregon’s legacy includes the second highest rate of curbside recycling in the country, a higher than average use of biofuels and a new renewable energy law that has been touted as a model for the nation. Oregonians generate less solid waste than most Americans. It’s hard to see how encouraging people from Seattle, and now Hawaii, to dump their garbage in Oregon fits into that legacy.
Oregonians have more than cultural and philosophical reasons to be concerned about ships laden with Hawaiian garbage. They need strong assurances that Oregon’s own environment and communities are not endangered by toxins, dangerous microbes and noxious weeds that could pose a serious threat if they somehow get out of the huge compressed bales of garbage covered with plastic shrink wrap. They need assurances that Oregon’s waterways, highways and rail corridors can safely and cost effectively handle the extra traffic, and that the whole program fits into a comprehensive waste-management plan.
Certainly, Hawaii has a garbage problem that islanders must address. Not only is Hawaii one of the most densely populated states in the country, it is one of the most beautiful and ecologically fragile. After decades of disposing of rubbish in landfills and incinerators, Hawaii is simply running out of space and options. City officials say Honolulu will likely have no choice but to close its primary landfill next year. This is not just a Hawaiian problem, either — it is a national problem that millions of American tourists helped create. If Oregon can assist in a solution, that would be worth doing.
It is probably inevitable that Hawaii will at some point have to start exporting rubbish to the mainland. By the same token, Hawaii could do a much better job of following Oregon’s lead toward a culture of environmental awareness and sustainability. One area that obviously needs work is recycling — Hawaiians recycle less than 25 percent of their sold waste. Oregonians, by comparison, recycle more than 50 percent of their waste.
Hawaiians should not fall into a sense of complacency toward sustainability simply because they found a place far, far away to ship mountains of Hawaiian garbage. That’s just a quick fix. Oregonians likewise should offer no encouragement to any program that delays or sidetracks the evolution of a better environmental ethic — whether at home or 3,000 miles across the ocean.
Hawaii because it is a chain of small islands does have problems with garbage unique to the continental United States. Unlike the mainland, which has truck and rail transportation to ship the recycled components from garbage to their markets, Hawaii can’t. Why would that state invest more oil derived recourses that are all imported to transport and sort garbage at a recycling center and then transport it to the mainland. It makes more economical and energy sense to transport the garbage via barge to the mainland. If it were economically feasible to sort it at the landfill in Arlington it would be done, but guess what, it isn’t. Recycling in Oregon is a farce anyway. There are certain commodities that just don’t pencil out to recycle economically, like plastic. When the price of oil makes plastic containers too expensive then we will find another way. Let the market determine how we handle this stuff and not have mandates by the green nazi’s that are totally ignorant of economics and science. Because of these fools I now have two big new containers to manage on my small property with no place to put them and my garbage rates went up.
(email verified)
Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Just toss the trash in the ocean - it's Big.
(email verified)
Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 03:12 PM
Dump it in a volcano, we don't need it here. Can they force us to take their trash?
(email verified)
Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 05:34 PM
Why is their problem now going to become OUR problem?
I like the idea of throwing their trash in a volcano. It would take less fuel to cart the garbage up there than to barge it over here.
Arlington will want this- it will be money for them, but it just does not make sense. Our scenic gorge will have barges of stinky garbage running up it. Where are the Friends of the Gorge on this hot topic?
If Hawaii does not have to think too hard for a solution they themselves can implement, they will not be motivated to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Here we are in Oregon trying our best to do just that, and yet in the same breath we are going to become everyone else's dump? It's ridiculous.
(email verified)
Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Apparently a disgruntled garbage lover made their comments known...probably someone that may profit it. Protecting the environment has greater importance than the human ideals of economics.
There needs to be a strict environmental analysis before this should even be considered. Oregon does not have the same insects, bacteria, etc. that will be bundled up with Hawaii's wonderful gift (I prefer pineapple). How will that effect our eco systems? Anybody?
(email verified)
Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 02:02 PM
Oregon DESERVES TO HAVE GARBAGE DUMPED HERE! The State of Oregonn and it's homo-loving, tree-hugging IDIOT Governor DESERVE IT!
(email verified)
Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 03:34 PM
Oregon DESERVES TO HAVE GARBAGE DUMPED HERE! The State of Oregonn and it's homo-loving, tree-hugging IDIOT Governor DESERVE IT!
(email verified)
Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 03:34 PM
Oregonians should be pissed. Hawaii doesn't manage their landfills properly. Unlike the mainland garbage hauling is not privatized. It's a function of City government (Can you imagine if the City of Portland was responsible for hauling and disposal of garbage)!
I don't know if things have changed, but growing up there you could set a refrigerator or couch curbside and the City would haul it off as part of your normal TWICE a week garbage pickup.
As a kid I remember going to the dump with a trucks full of garbage and dumping it for free. There is no incentive to recycle or generate less waste in Hawaii and now they want to send it here.
Where are the environmentalist? I don't consider myself one, but I think we would agree on this.
(email verified)
Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 11:00 AM
ship it to molokai.they could use the jobs
(email verified)
Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 01:36 PM
Hawaiian garbage here is kind of like our spent nuclear fuel going to Hanford, WA. : it will get worked out so wait for the final chapter.
Biggest problem here is that TedKSucks seems to have gotten his chain saw stuck in his ass & is having a major identity crisis.
(email verified)
Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 03:32 PM
We ship our jobs to china so they can use slaves and dump crap into the air that we are down wind of and send us back crap that has a short life span and ends up in our landfills and were worried about some Hawaiian garbage - wake up
(email verified)
Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 03:42 PM
Three words about Hawaiian Trash:
DO NOT WANT.
(email verified)
Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 12:41 AM
I just recently moved to Honolulu from Portland this last February... I cannot agree more with this article. My heart will always be in Oregon and I couldn't be more proud of our environmental accomplishments. I will forever be proud to say I am an Oregonian.
On the same note however, I wish to be able to say that I am proud to have been Kama'Aina, or a Hawai'an local. I would like to add some information that many might not know just from reading this article.
Currently here on O'ahu, there is a huge movement to get people to put forth the effort and become more eco-friendly... "For a better and sustainable Hawai'i" they say... it is in commercials probably a thousand times a day on TV and radio and on billboards, urging everyone to recycle and reduce waste, switch to cars with lower emissions and now they are even planning to put in a light rail much like MAX... They will meet with some opposition in the matter because many locals and natives believe that, frankly, we should all get the hell out of their state and let them be... However, the vast majority of Hawai'ans and migrants support this move and though it will take years to accomplish, Hawai'i IS trying to take steps in the right direction. Oregon has ALWAYS been at the forefront of the eco movement and we have always encouraged others to jump on OUR band wagon... *beams with pride* I think we should help Hawai'i as much as we can without sacrificing our own strict standards. Oregon and SW Washington have an exemplary waste management system and many MANY corporations that are striving to be or are already self-sufficient and we ought to teach Hawai'i how to do the same. This IS a VERY real problem out here, and its one, not so easily remedied. Many of you might be hating on Hawai'i for this... but put it this way... On O'ahu, to get from one side of the island to another, it takes about 8 minutes... and to drive all the way around... about an hour... That is less time and distance than from the heart of Down Town Portland, to Lincoln City or Heck, in rush hour... Beaverton. In that small space, we have to fit hundreds of thousands of Kama'aina and tourists everyday AND find a place to store their trash until it can be dealt with.. There just is NOT enough room for it. Hawai'i is an amazingly beautiful place, second only to Oregon... If you haven't been here, I recommend you visit O'ahu and Kauai... Anyway, it is a very fragile eco-system and worth trying to save... I wish I could upload some photos for you all to see.
Waste management is not just a local problem.. it is a GLOBAL problem... Those who say.. why should we have to deal with it.. or its not our problem... you are dead wrong... Think of all the prices we pay globally, think of what is a stake here... its NOT just our own asses we should saving... if we have a chance to help other states or even countries become more eco-friendly, WE SHOULD! Oregonians are not the kind of people who leave other to their own problems... we are opinionated, hard headed and damn it... we actually give a damn, and not just when its our own back yards. Hawai'i is a wonderful place full of culture and history and its just as much worth our time as the Gorge or the Coast... or the horrifically nasty Willamette River.
I know what it used to be like here on the islands... many locals tell stories and the elder generations complain of changes... but change IS starting to happen and people ARE starting to care... its not a bad idea to help them out however we can. It might be a little too little too late for a perfect solution... but there ARE solutions, and those of us who care about the earth and what happens to her, WILL help to better things.
(email verified)
Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 12:10 PM
This is why we need to stop creating junk for our consumer society. Every corporation should be mandated to shut down to protect the earth. Then we wouldn't need to worry about this stuff ruining our planet.
(email verified)
Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 11:32 AM
We ship our jobs to china so they can use slaves and dump crap into the air that we are down wind of and send us back crap that has a short life span and ends up in our landfills and were worried about some Hawaiian garbage - wake up
"getalife"
(Not verified)
Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 03:42 PM
Best statement of the day!!!!!!!
In fact, Hawaii should check into sending their garbage to China...perhaps the Chinese can use that garbage in manufacturing some of the products they make for us!
(email verified)
Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 12:14 PM
Would someone please reach over and pull the disk out of "love the earth"'s brain. The programming is done. If you really believe that quit buying junk, quit using junk, and quit disposing of junk. I would ask you to write back with an update as to how it's going but that would necessitate the further use of junk, which we all know you are opposed to. There is also junk of the verbal sort that many find a environmental pollutant.
(email verified)
Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 07:21 AM
Dump the garbage downtown. Nobody will notice.
(email verified)
Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 10:53 AM
This isn't going to happen any time soon.
The US Army Corps of Enginerds permitted a barge warf east of Arlington (for the garbage barges) and last week the permit was pulled because they sited it on the Umatilla tribe's claim to treatied indian fishing ground on the Columbia. So, no garb' barge dock: no Aloha garbage in OR.
Garbage is not a global problem; it is a regional problem and must be solved at regional/local level.
Hawaii has a long way to go before I am convinced this is the last/best place for their state's garbage. Since virtually everything is imported they need a front-end disposal tax on all the stuff they import, instead of back-ending Oregon with their waste problem.
All this talk of garb barges started before the price of fuel doubled too. Somebody's paying to dead-head those garbage scows back to HI, plastic bags will not keep their nasty polluted bilgewater out of the Columbia.
Hawaii is not in our region. If you doubt that, see global map; you flunk geography as well as regional planning/management.
(email verified)
Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 12:23 PM
why dont they send garbage to polluting China? I think it is cheaper there.
(email verified)
Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 03:01 PM
WHAT THE BIG PROBLEM? I left Sandy 55 years ago 1943. They had a huge garbage dump near the Old Sandy Creamery They just dumped over the hill lots of rats.
A couple years ago I visited Sandy and where that old garbage dump was there are some real nice homes built right over that old dump.
My sugestion is for the people of oregon to make all the mony they can maybe 50 years from now they will be builing houses where they dump all that garbage.
(email verified)
Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 06:01 PM
We really don't need to ship garbage anywhere. There are a few technologies out there that are allowing counties to harness energy and natural resources out of their trash. Check out the TDP(Thermal De-polymerization)System working in Carthage, MO that eliminates the waste from the Butterball Turkey Plant next door. This machine breaks down anything carbon based(except metal and nuclear waste)and the results are diesel fuel, natural gas, purified water, and minerals. (Great Discover Magazine Article on it from World Changing Technologies). Also, a county in Florida has recently built a Plasma-arc Gasification machine to eliminate it's landfill that was due to close from over-capacity. In both cases, there was near zero pollution created, they fuel themselves, and the left over energy is harnessed for the surrounding areas. Check it out, these processes could be an immediate (but certainly not the best) solution.
(email verified)
Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 11:47 PM
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Re: Don’t encourage Hawaii to send its trash
I might as well go back to dumping my cans, bottles and plastics into the trash.
"dale"
(email verified)
Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 08:02 AM