Tour shows what really happens to leavings

A big thank you to Stacia Bobikevich and Hana Steel of the County of Maui Solid Waste Division for bringing the famous Tour de Trash to South Maui at the request of South Maui Sustainability. A lot of work was done to add some South Maui sites not usually on the route.

The Tour de Trash is done periodically by the county to give people a chance to find out what happens to everything when we are finished with it. This includes our trash, yard waste, recyclables and, yes, even our poop. It is really amazing to see how much waste we generate and how much it costs to deal with it. I, for one, am inspired to try even harder to buy things that use less packaging and dispose of it properly.

Thanks to the vendors that showed us their operations - especially those who came in on a Saturday to show us around - including Maui Earth Compost, Maui C&D Landfill, Central Maui Landfill, Pacific Biodiesel, SOS Metals Recycling and Maui Disposal's materials recovery facility where all the recyclables are hand sorted to prepare for bulk shipping to off-island buyers.

If you're interested in the fall tour, give the county a call at 270-7874.

Maury King

Kihei