Re: SOLID WASTE TO ENERGY CONVERSION PROJECTS (IT-45)
Dear Chair Sugimura and Members of the Infrastructure and Transportation Committee,
Mahalo for this opportunity to respond to the matter of solid waste to energy conversion consideration.
As a geographer with a keen interest in sustainability, I believe a Maui County commitment to waste to energy conversion would be a mistake. The inescapable imperative of these times — to move towards long-term, sustainable measures in infrastructure and policy — would be undermined by waste to energy conversion. In Honolulu, for example, the City and County’s H-POWER undermines zero waste efforts by diverting valuable resources (both money and materials) while locking the city into a continued commitment to this wasteful and costly infrastructure.
H-POWER requires minimum tonnage of wastes; the City and County pays penalties when the volume of waste falls short. Between 2013 and 2016, Honolulu, paid $6.2 million to Covanta, a for-profit, New Jersey-based corporation (2017 auditor’s report). As such, Honolulu is disincentivized from developing genuine, sustainable, ecologically acceptable solutions such as reuse, recycling, upstream waste reduction, prevention, and municipal composting. Nor does H-POWER provide “clean: energy; in 2019 it emitted over 270 thousand metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. (COVANTA HONOLULU RESOURCE RECOVERY VENTURE (H-POWER) For these reasons, the European Union, which has relied on waste incineration for the past few decades, is moving away from thermal WtE and other forms of incineration. UNEP Waste to Energy)
Please look towards earth and people-friendly measures to reduce reliance on landfills. Burning money and resources in a waste to energy power plant isn’t it.
Re: SOLID WASTE TO ENERGY CONVERSION PROJECTS (IT-45)
Dear Chair Sugimura and Members of the Infrastructure and Transportation Committee,
Mahalo for this opportunity to respond to the matter of solid waste to energy conversion consideration.
As a geographer with a keen interest in sustainability, I believe a Maui County commitment to waste to energy conversion would be a mistake. The inescapable imperative of these times — to move towards long-term, sustainable measures in infrastructure and policy — would be undermined by waste to energy conversion. In Honolulu, for example, the City and County’s H-POWER undermines zero waste efforts by diverting valuable resources (both money and materials) while locking the city into a continued commitment to this wasteful and costly infrastructure.
H-POWER requires minimum tonnage of wastes; the City and County pays penalties when the volume of waste falls short. Between 2013 and 2016, Honolulu, paid $6.2 million to Covanta, a for-profit, New Jersey-based corporation (2017 auditor’s report). As such, Honolulu is disincentivized from developing genuine, sustainable, ecologically acceptable solutions such as reuse, recycling, upstream waste reduction, prevention, and municipal composting. Nor does H-POWER provide “clean: energy; in 2019 it emitted over 270 thousand metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. (COVANTA HONOLULU RESOURCE RECOVERY VENTURE (H-POWER) For these reasons, the European Union, which has relied on waste incineration for the past few decades, is moving away from thermal WtE and other forms of incineration. UNEP Waste to Energy)
Please look towards earth and people-friendly measures to reduce reliance on landfills. Burning money and resources in a waste to energy power plant isn’t it.