• Make recycling easier • County’s ‘bulldozing’ behavior • Where is the aloha? • Get the rescue equipment Make recycling easier The landfill issue is generating interest in a lot of folks. Here is my point of view. It is
• Make recycling easier
• County’s ‘bulldozing’ behavior
• Where is the aloha?
• Get the rescue equipment
Make recycling easier
The landfill issue is generating interest in a lot of folks. Here is my point of view. It is not a landfill, it’s a “landfull.
Make it easier for businesses to recycle. Individuals can recycle quite easily. Just take the stuff to a recycling center. But if you don’t have a car, your neighbor can take it for you because he has a nice big truck, no, wait a minute, his truck has a company logo on it, the center won’t accept from a commercial business, oh well, just throw it away. Why is it so inconvenient for businesses to recycle? They generate most of the recyclable material. I think our local government is suffering from a serious case of cranial-rectal inversion. There is a technical term, it’s called common sense. Have you ever looked in the bunch of dumpsters behind the Koloa shops? They are filled daily with cardboard boxes destined for the landfill. The recycle bins used to be in Koloa Town but they got moved to Brennecke’s parking lot right next to a sign that says “Sponsored by Brennecke’s.” I guess the businesses in Koloa were filling them up too fast. Isn’t that what they are for? When I asked the person at the recycling center why can’t businesses use the recycling bins, you know what I was told? The businesses fill them up too fast. When I asked, “Isn’t that what they are for?” I was told some mumbo-jumbo about our contract was for residential blah, blah, blah. I thought the whole concept of recycling was based on respecting the ‘aina. Not! It all comes down to money.Cha-ching.
Roger Olsen
Lawai
County’s ‘bulldozing’ behavior
The people of Kekaha have not been given their “fair share” of hearings about their landfill and they are being deprived of a proactive participation into the Environmental Review Process.
The county mayor and engineers’ “bulldozing” behavior towards the Kekaha underprivileged is oppressing the island’s only landfill community. The landfill problem stemmed from 1994, by the ones in power who had no real “solid waste” plans to implement. There was taxpayer money spent on delusion and a lot about “doing something about nothing.” These officials have enjoyed the “luxury of time.”
To say that, “the county will have no choice but to shut down the landfill,” is humiliating to the people who put up with the landfill for 54 years. As if the community is at fault for not finding a solution to beat the Aug. 24 deadline. What is the point of having a draft environmental assessement if the officials in charge force the people to “make a gradual haste” of the due process? That’s an oxymoron.
If the deadline for public comment is the reason for “pressuring” the people into accepting the draft environmental assessment, those who did not justly inform the public of their timely duty should be reprimanded. How is “shutting down” an only landfill going to solve the waste problem? The circumstances surrounding this “crisis” should have been anticipated when they realized the chronology of mistakes and criminal negligence done in the past. Shutting down the landfill is an iniquitous way out.
The county is dishing out “hash” about the environmental assessment process and the people are suffering for what the leaders have lacked in the past — knowledge, wisdom, timing, conscience and integrity. All the time and money spent on consultants and committees to study Kaua‘i County’s solid waste problem could have been spent on practical solutions by the people who are most eligible to give it — the “gatekeepers” of Kaua‘i’s only landfill — the people of Kekaha. Malama pono.
Genara Buza Campos
Kapolei
Where is the aloha?
This weekend, I had the experience of shopping both at Costco and Cost-U-Less. It’s the weekend. Trying to catch all the family shopping into one day, to have another day to relax is the usual, ya know?
In short, what I want to say is really about the differences of the two stores.
I do like taking my own cart and placing it back into the cart receptacle. It’s good exercise. I also bring my own bag. Fortunately, Kauai Medical Clinic provided their employees with a recyclable “grocery bag.” I keep it in my Jeep.
I have learned the practice of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” But of this same nature, it was still disconcerting for me to adapt to the atmosphere I encountered at the Kaua‘i Costco store this weekend.
Generally, the overall aisle and store set-up was fine. Traditional items on shelves, pretty much organized and fully stocked in sensible arrangements. But “ho” when you come to the checkout … in the check-out line you have now entered into a different “sphere.”
It doesn’t bother me waiting in line. I look around, relax a bit, find my neighbors, and friends to talk story. I saw several off-island groups (probably tourists) with their carts fully stocked of household quick-foods and lots of spirits.
Soon it was my turn approaching the check stand with my 3/4-ton Hummer-styled grocery cart.
“Approach” was “cleared” and then immediately all my selections were whipped out of the cart by someone who at least introduced themselves to say, “Hi, did you find everything you needed?” But who were they and why were they removing things from my cart
They “assisted” me with a speed, removing my items from my grocery cart and organizing them onto the conveyor belt so rapidly that I felt, I had now moved onto an assembly line of Costco.
If only I had on my astronaut outfit. I’d had been ready for this adventure. I felt like, at any moment I was going to be launched, or my purchases catapulted out of the store. I had better darn right hurry up, do my PIN code and get a move on.
Wait …
Come on Costco … this store is on Kaua‘i. Slow down the perpetual motions and try to enhance the ‘ohana skills.
A little island music overhead and the charm of a real greeting — eyes which meet another’s eyes — would make the shopping experience more rewarding to our residents and tourists, alike. A bit more of our ‘ohana.
After Costco, this weekend, it was such a pleasure to continue to shop at Cost-U-Less and the other local markets.
Oe! Don’t ‘cha get it Costco?
Kalakeke Robert
Kapa‘a
Get the rescue equipment
Let me second Arn Nurock’s proposal to place rescue equipment on beaches such as Larsen’s. I moved here from American Samoa two years ago where the Pago Pago Rotary Club has installed “Angel Rings” on two dangerous beaches.
This device has already saved the life of a drowning swimmer at Vaitogi Beach. If the county can’ t or won’t place such safety equipment, maybe one of Kaua‘i’s service clubs might consider this a good project.
Ken Fasig
Kalaheo
