MORE THAN A THIRD OF ALL WASTE TONNAGE IS RECYCLED ON MAUI

An Aug. 4 letter began, "I moved here two years ago and was amazed that Maui did not recycle." Maui does recycle, a bit more than one-third of all waste tonnage generated. Sure it should be more, but all of us who recycle on Maui, and particularly those whose jobs and businesses exist due to recycling, are very aware of the efforts that save these recyclables from being dumped into our landfill.

The writer also maligns the fact that sewage sludge is being mixed with compost. This is how we recycle the 20,000 tons of sewage sludge produced on our island each year, and keep it out of the landfill. If anyone has a better way of recycling these biosolids, I'm sure there are interested parties.

One of the three major recommendations from our 2002 Report of the Recycling Task Force was to "divert all green waste from the landfill . . . assist local companies in opening/expanding composting facilities . . . and modify the automated residential refuse collection to include separated green waste collection."

The task force estimated that if all green waste were eliminated from the landfill (i.e., via composting), overall recycling on Maui would increase to about 55 percent of all waste tonnage generated. We may create more green waste per capita than anywhere in the world; it is imperative that it not be buried in our limited landfill.

Bruce Erfer

Lahaina