Give resource recovery facility a chance to work
Give resource recovery facility a chance to work
Responding to Feb. 28 article (TGI) and letter on the landfill in the news again, did you know that the new trend in waste management is to have a resource recovery facility? Look it up. From San Francisco to Princeton University, managing resources (formerly called trash) is the way to go.
Well, Kauai had one of the first resource recovery facilities. Built following Hurricane Iniki, financed by FEMA, it had a resource recovery building, a set of shops for recovery — the most famous being the glass artist — and the landfill.
The resource building is still there (where you drop off your batteries and pick up a composter) and the shops are now storage units. The facility was given a year or two to succeed.
According to resource-management professionals, a municipal resource recovery facility should be given at least 20 years to succeed. It takes people a long time to change habits.
The buildings and set-up are still there. Perhaps now is the time to reconsider their use. Keeping resources out of the landfill is more necessary now than ever.
Ruta Jordans, Kapaa
Thanks for the info Ruta. Now please continue the story and tell us what ever happened to that resource recovery facility.
FEMA, nobody’s interested in that kind of job. Locally. So it is federal funded.