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November 2004

Hawaiian Waste to Stay Put

Honolulu, HI— The city has abandoned plans to ship solid waste to the mainland for disposal. Both Pacific Rim Environmental Resources of Seattle and Idaho Waste Systems of Boise, Idaho had proposed shipping shrink-wrapped containers of municipal solid waste from the popular resort destination across the ocean.

Oahu, the most populous of the eight main Hawaiian islands, produces over 1.5 million tons of municipal solid waste every year. Currently, only about 300,000 tons are landfilled there, and the island is running out of landfill space. Honolulu city officials first saw the shipping option as a lower cost alternative to expanding the landfill operation on the island. In retrospect, the city is considering options for dealing with increasing waste without sending it off the island.

Pacific Rim has experience in managing waste and industrial by-products in Japan. Idaho Waste Systems offers customers a waste-by-rail service, moving waste material by train to the firm’s new Simco Regional Landfill in Elmore County, Idaho.