Bill 33 won’t make taxpayers pay to throw trash

I appreciate Tyler Saito’s letter to the editor of July 30, expressing concern about instituting even a partial pay-as-you-throw landfill rubbish program. He can rest assured that unless such a program will save taxpayers substantial money, I, too, will not support such a program. Previously, the data I was given demonstrated that unless we do a pay-as-you-throw landfill rubbish program, we would urgently be facing the need to build a new South Hilo Landfill — which would cost many millions of dollars. To avoid that situation, the Department of Environmental Management and I worked on various scenarios to avoid such a costly dilemma. However, based on a revised assessment by the Director of Environmental Management — there is no longer looming the need for a new landfill in the foreseeable future.

Hence, at the last council meeting held on July 23, I immediately withdrew Bill 32 — my partial pay-as-you-throw landfill rubbish proposal. My other solid waste bill, Bill 33 (as amended with Communication 200.4) was, however, discussed and favorably considered by a majority of the council members. That bill contained no pay-as-you-throw provision, and made clear that no resident would be charged any fee for disposal of any household rubbish. Amended Bill 33 also would allow commercial haulers to dispose of up to 6 cubic yards of sorted rubbish at the major transfer stations. This will be a big help to smaller commercial operators hauling pick-up trucks of greenwaste — since they would no longer be limited to dispose of this greenwaste at only the West Hawaii and South Hilo landfills. Amended Bill 33 will also give the director of Environmental Management the discretion under certain conditions to direct more trucks from Hilo side transfer stations to the West Hawaii landfill. Allowing the director some leeway as to where transfer station landfill trash is hauled will save taxpayers some $60,000 to $70,000 each month. This is just common sense. If you would like a copy of my amended Bill 33, call my office at 887-2043.

Unfortunately, the impression given by the July 24 West Hawaii Today article “Council trashes bag tag bill,” was that the council trashed my legislation at the council meeting. That was not the case. In fact, this bill as amended was moved forward for referral to the Environmental Management Commission by a vote of 8 to 1 (with only Councilmember Dennis Onishi in opposition). West Hawaii Today and the Hawaii Tribune-Herald instead reported the legislation was postponed. I appreciate that several days later West Hawaii Today published a correction notice and presumably so did the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

Overall, we are making a lot of headway when it comes to our solid waste program — rejecting the proposed mass burn incinerator which would have cost us hundreds of millions. We are also now moving forward on upgrading the transfer stations and establishing a solid compost and mulch program so that we can get greenwaste and food scraps out of the landfill. Making compost available to our farmers and not creating methane in our landfills that pollute our air and puts us at risk of EPA fines, is again a matter of common sense.

As Tyler Saito and others may not be aware, I work hard to get ideas out so the public can brainstorm significant legislation and play a meaningful role in carving out the final form of the legislation. Once this amended Bill 33 is reviewed by the Environmental Management Commission, it will loop back to the council. At that time, I look forward to hearing from the public, including from Tyler Saito, as to how the bill could be further improved, so we can take another step forward to solving our solid waste problem in ways that cost less overall and are consistent with our “reduce-reuse-recycle” policies.

Margaret Wille is Hawaii County Council member from District 9, representing North and South Kohala.

Viewpoint articles are the opinion of the writer and not necessarily the opinion of West Hawaii Today.