Recycling can have storybook ending

Show children the way if recycling is to be an active part of their lives as

adults. With that in mind, 70,000 copies of a recycling storybook were

distributed Wednesday to schoolchildren throughout Hawai’i to mark the

nationwide America Reycles Day.

“The Kolea, the Kahuli, the Honu and Kim:

An Adventure in Recycling, Reducing and Reusing” was presented to elementary

schools on Kaua’i and in the rest of the state as a joint effort by county,

city and state governments, businesses and non-profit, pro-recycling

organizations. Produced by the state Department of Business, Economic

Development and Tourism and reviewed by teachers, the book combines projects,

activities and its story with a simple, yet important goal: Encourage children

and their families to reuse and recycle packaging and other disposables that is

part of their everyday lives.

Efforts are underway on Kaua’i to expand its

paltry recycling programs into something meaningful and farther-reaching. To

that end, this week’s book experiment will have a happy ending if it helps

produce a generation of enthusiastic recyclers.