(HAWAII) The city of Honolulu is entertaining an intriguing offer to handle its solid waste--shrink-wrapping it and sending it to the mainland for disposal. Idaho Waste Systems and Pacific Rim Environmental Resources have each offered to ship the city's waste across the ocean to megalandfills.

Hawaiian officials understand that there could be opposition to the idea from residents of Washington or Idaho, but note that the likelihood of opening another landfill on Oahu is difficult at best.

Idaho Waste has offered to dispose of the waste in a landfill near Boise, Id., and could take more than 200,000 tons of waste each year. The Simco Regional Landfill has enough capacity to handle that amount of waste for at least a century. Pacific Rim Environmental Resources of Seattle would take the waste to the Roosevelt Regional Landfill in Klickitat County, Wash.

The garbage issue in Honolulu is not yet at crisis proportions, but could reach that level if left unchecked. The city is considering a second public landfill on the island of Oahu since the current facility, the Waimanalo Gulch landfill, is scheduled to close in May 2008.

The city and county of Honolulu currently generate an estimated 1.6 million tons of solid waste a year, and city officials expect that will increase by 200,000 tons a year over the next decade. Recycling and a waste-to-energy plant are handling some of the island's waste, but the remainder goes to the landfill.

If Idaho Waste Systems won a contract to handle the city's waste, it would apply for a permit to construct a transfer station in Kalaeloa where the waste would be compacted into shrink-wrapped bales. The bales would then be shipped twice a month on barges to Longview, Wash., and then sent by train to Idaho. Pacific Rim has not yet announced all of its plans, though Klickitat officials said garbage fees from Hawaii waste could bring in up to $300,000 a year.

Environmental groups have expressed concern about the possibility. The Idaho Conservation League encourages other states to dispose of their own waste, while Columbia Riverkeeper and Friends of the Columbia Gorge are seeking an environmental review of the Klickitat contract.

Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin

For more information, contact the Honolulu Department of Public Works, (808) 692-5159, www.co.honolulu.hi.us/env.