Posts filed under ‘Political Action’
Hearing: Maui Island Plan – South Maui – Tuesday, May 29, 9am
THIS MAY BE THE ONLY CHANCE FOR PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON SOUTH MAUI GROWTH
Where: Maui County Council Chambers, 200 High St Wailuku
If you can’t go, send comments to General Plan Committee: committee@mauicounty.us
Kauai Energy Presentation sponsored by Maui County
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Join the Sustainable Living Institute of Maui (SLIM) and Maui County for a presentation luncheon on Kauai’s Energy Plan, Holo Holo Vision 2020, at UH Maui College.
The luncheon will take place Thursday, February 16, 2012 from 11:30-1:00PM in the Multi-Purpose Room, Pilina Building, Maui College.
What is an energy cooperative and how does it work? What is Kauai County doing to meet their energy sustainability goals? Ben Sullivan, Energy Coordinator for Kauai County, will be discussing the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) and Kaua’i’s current Energy Sustainability Plan. Mr. Sullivan will review the KIUC renewable history, discuss how an energy COOP works, KIUC’s current solar, smart grid, hydro, biomass, and wind projects, as well as the current challenges and opportunities. He will introduce Kaua’i’s current initiative, Holo Holo 2020, and other initiatives, including performance contracting, EV’s, PV, Kaua’i bus, and other renewable energy projects. His presentation will conclude with how Kaua’i relates to Maui and the rest of the State of Hawaii.
Lunch will be available for $5 from the Maui Culinary Academy and includes a variety of sandwiches, chips, and cookies. Please RSVP to Dena Sato (Dena.Sato@co.maui.hi.us).
This event is sponsored by the Maui County and the Sustainable Living Institute of Maui.
Green Business and Investing Locally
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
5:30–7:30 p.m.
Class Act Restaurant, Pa’ina Building, Maui College
The Sustainable Living Institute of Maui (SLIM) and EdVenture (formerly VITEC) at UH Maui College present their next Sustainable Business Pau Hana, “Green Business and Investing Locally”.
The emerging green economy reflects profound shifts in how Americans are shopping, banking, and investing. As consumers consider the environmental, social, and governance issues of the companies making the products and services they purchase, the movement to “go green” has mainstreamed in recent years. Discover exciting opportunities to use money as a tool for social justice, community development, corporate reform, and ecological sustainability. Learn how to grow the green economy through education, standards, advocacy, and investment in a free provocative presentation with Michael Kramer and James Frazier of Hawaii’s own Natural Investments LLC at 5:30pm on January 26, 2012 at Maui College. Whether you want to create a Hawaii-recognized Sustainable Business Corporation, invest in our local green economy, make capitalism more compassionate and ecologically wise, or help alleviate poverty and build community capacity, many strategies are available today to align your values with your business operations, purchases, and investments. You’ll be amazed to hear what’s happening here in Hawaii to grow our green economy, and how these efforts connect to national and global regenerative and responsible practices and initiatives.
Michael Kramer is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary, Managing Partner, and Director of Social Research at Natural Investments LLC. Michael has lived on Hawai`i Island since 1999, where he founded the Kuleana Green Business Program of the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce in 2005 as well as the Kona Earth Festival. He currently serves on the board of the Sustainability Association of Hawai`i and the Hawai`i Alliance for a Local Economy, and is a 20-year permaculture teacher and teacher trainer.
James Frazier is a local, green, and sustainable investing specialist with Natural Investments LLC, based in Maui and Port Townsend, WA. He is a co-founder of the Local Investing Opportunities Network (LION) of East Jefferson County, WA, and a finance graduate of the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania. Outside the financial world, his passion for sustainable living has spurred him to explore permaculture, eco-building, natural medicine, yoga, renewable power systems, and more.
RSVP to sliminfo@hawaii.edu. For more information, visit the SLIM website.
SF Begins Down The All Clean Energy Path
By 2020, the city of San Francisco aims to get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources – and it just got the green ball rolling by giving Local Power a $390,000 contract to design a plan for moving the city’s power sourcing from centralized fossil fuel plants and toward locally generated renewables.
Bioneers 3.0
Visionary Bioneers founder Kenny Ausubel paints a very lucid picture of the humanity-wide risks we face, what will be required to solve the problems and the history of the Bioneers contribution to the solutions.
Surprise! U.S. might meet its climate targets – The Washington Post
The recession and other factors may lower U.S. carbon emissions to the goals set at the 2009 Copenhagen climate talks.
CO2 reduction chart
Return to Public Utilities?
The citizens of Boulder Colorado will vote this fall on whether to fire the private utility company that supplies their electricty, and start their own, green-oriented public utility. Could this be the start of a movement to un-privatize?
Read the article, Power to the People, from the Coloradan Magazine..
Mayor seeks to give more attention to sustainability
Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa said Monday that Maui County should create a new division to focus on sustainability issues, and that adding “sustainability” to the Department of Environmental Management was one of his top priorities for charter amendments.
CURBSIDE RECYCLING COMES TO MAUI!—IT’S UP TO YOU!
Mayor Alan Arakawa is supporting the first Maui County initiative for curbside recycling. Now we need to let every member of the county council know that we support this initiative.
In his February 25 State of the County speech, the mayor spoke about starting a curbside recycling program in Kihei. “We plan to expand this service to all of Maui County as soon as possible,” he said. “This has been a goal we’ve been talking about for years. . . . Let’s do it.”
The mayor’s budget contains $50,000 for processing the curbside recycling project , $35,000 for education about the project and somewhat less than $350,000 for new containers. The final costs may be less than these estimates.
However the County Council must deciding wether or not to fund the program during its current series of budget-setting meetings. Their decision will be influenced by testimony from the public, which means you. If you want curbside recycling, attend any of the county council meetings from today through May 4. The entire budget must be approved by the end of May or first part of June.
BENEFITS
- You will have the convenience to to put almost all your recycling in one container and only have to take it as far as your curb.
- When fully implemented, Curbside recycling will reduce landfill use by 15%-20%, extending the
life of our current landfill and saving much taxpayer money. - Your yard trimmings will become food for new plants instead of waste in a landfill.
- Your recyclables will become new products.
- Increased public participation in recycling and conservation.
- Increased understanding of environmental issues.
DETAILS OF THE PROPOSAL
The Maui County Solid Waste Division is proposing a first phase test of curbside recycling to be conduced in Kihei—in Maui Meadows and most of the area between Hoonani and Kapuna streets. The program will be phased in across Maui County over the next few years, depending upon council funding.
There will be three types of curbside pickup, each in its own container:
- Regular trash (goes into the landfill)
- Recycling:
put all recyclables in same container – no need to separate by kind (see details below). - Yard trimmings with select kitchen organics:
will be converted into compost. (see details below)
The Recycling Section is recommending the county consider a version of the “Pay As You Throw” or PAYT programs, (also known as unit pricing or variable-rate pricing). 700 U.S. communities already have some form of PAYT, but none yet in Hawai’i. PAYT programs are shown to motivate residents to reduce the amount of waste they make.
In the proposed program, residents choose and pay for one of three sizes of refuse container—32 gallons, 64 gallons or 96 gallons. The current refuse containers are all 96 gallons and the rate is $16 to $17 per month. Smaller containers would cost the county less to purchase and have a lower monthly fee for residents.
Recycling and green waste containers would all be one size—96 gallons.
Refuse would be picked up once per week. Recycling and Green Waste would alternately be picked up every other week.
Although the Recycling Section of the Solid Waste Department is recommending the county adopt PAYT, the decision will be made by Department of Environmental Management along with the mayor and council members.
RECYCLING
All recycled material will be marketed by the county’s processing contractor to be manufactured into new products.
The Recycling Section is developing the list of items you will be able to recycle. The following list is a draft. Items may be added or excluded as research continues.
- Plastic: all #1 and #2 plastic, bottles, jugs and coffee tubs, and lids.
- Aluminum: cans, pop tops, foil, trays
- Metal (steel or tin): cans, lids and caps
- Paper:
- Bags
- Cardboard
- Office and computer paper
- Envelopes
- Junk mail
- Magazines
- Newspapers
- Gabletop milk and juice containers
Curbside recycling will not collect:
- Glass (you will still need to take this to the redemption center)
- Plastic bags
- wrapping paper, soiled paper towels, used napkins, used paper plates,
paper cartons - Styrofoam
- Plastic silverware
- Ice cream containers (they have a plastic liner)
- Electronics
- Helium or propane tanks
- Fire extinguisher
- Small appliances
- Dirt, rocks
YARD TRIMMINGS AND KICHEN ORGANICS
The county will collect:
- Grass and flower cuttings
- Tree and hedge trimmings
- House plants without soil
- Christmas trees
- Palm fronds
- Kitchen organics:
- The fibrous, hard stuff should be put in the organics container for composting.
You will continue to put soft kitchen organics down the garbage disposal. - Vegetable and fruit peels, skin, rinds, stems and pits.
- Pineapple tops
- Artichoke leaves
- Corn cobs
- Food soiled:
- Napkins
- Paper towels
- Paper plates
- Pizza boxes
- Cartons
Tip: you can use a milk carton to store kitchen organics in your refrigerator
or freezer for the next curbside organics pickup.
- The fibrous, hard stuff should be put in the organics container for composting.
Curbside yard trimmings and kitchen organics will not collect:
- Meat (use garbage disposal)
- Seafood (use garbage disposal)
- Diary (use garbage disposal)
- Liquids (use garbage disposal)
COMPOSTING
The green waste yard trimmings will go to Eko Compost near the South Puunene Avenue landfill, where it will be finely ground up and “Heat Composted” by the high temperature naturally generated by decomposition of large amounts of plant matter. Heat composting kills infectious single-celled organisms by drying up their outer membrane and produces Class A compost for lawns, potted plants, fruit and vegetable gardens and farms. The final step of decomposition comes from Hawai’ian sunlight after the compost is spread on the soil.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Call or write the mayor to thank him for making curbside recycling a county priority.
- Attend a county council budget meeting to testify in favor of curbside
recycling. - Write, email or call council members to encourage them to support the proposal.
- Write a letter to the editor of the Maui News, Maui Time, etc.
- Forward this email to your friends.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact Hana Steel, Ph.D., Recycling Coordinator
Solid Waste Division
Department of Environmental Management
County of Maui
200 South High Street
Wailuku, Hawaii 96793
hana.steel@co.maui.hi.us
Phone: 808-270-7847
Fax: 808-270-7843
Find PAYT information on the web:
- EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) PAYT info
- EPA/Ecoconservation Institute
- Articles and case studies about PAYT programs.
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Learn about Eko Compost.
South Maui Sustainability, 2011
Nuclear Radiation Information for Maui
When radioactive iodine is detected in the air, potassium Iodide is recommended, but only when there’s an actual risk of exposure. Radioactive iodine can cause thyroid cancer. The iodine from the potassium iodide protects the thyroid because it’s absorbed by the thyroid, which then doesn’t absorb the radioactive iodine.
3/15 MauiNow.com article on cautions of using potassium idodide without iminent threat.
Good natural sources of iodine are edible seaweed, like nori, kelp, dulse and irish moss as well as asparagus, garlic, lima beans, mushrooms, seafood, sea salt and fortified salt, sesame seeds, soybeans, spinach, summer squash, swiss chard and turnip greens.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) operates on a 24-hour basis.
The Department of Health (DOH) continues to closely monitor the situation, and at this time says there is no indication of increased risk to the state. (via Interim Health Director Loretta Fuddy).
If a need should arise for residents to start taking potassium iodide to guard against effects of radiation exposure, the Hawaii State Department of Health along with other local, state and federal agencies will inform the public.
The EPA Radnet (Environmental Protection Agency) post air and water monitoring results online.
March 17, 2011 Maui News article
More radiation monitors deployed
EPA told The Associated Press it is adding two more stations on Guam, and two in Hawaii.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency already monitors radiation throughout the area as part of its RadNet system, which measures levels in air, drinking water, milk and rain.
The new Hawaii monitors would be placed on Oahu’s North Shore and on Kauai; two are already in place, on Oahu and the Big Island.
Maui Energy Commissioner: Doug McLeod
State Office Building, 200 South High Street, Wailuku, HI 96793-2155, (808) 986-1200
See other posts on nuclear energy in the Political Action category.
