Hawaiian Island is First at Recycling 100%!

HOME ARCHIV 2003 02.06.2003 Hawaiian Island is First at Recycling 100%!
 

         *************************         The Kalaupapa recycling program was started seven years ago by Lucy Whiting,         Treasurer of the Kalaupapa Lions Club and a National Park Service         employee.....         **************************         More for NGO´s all over the world...         **************************        

Kalaupapa, a little town on the island of Molokai is known for two very unique things; a former world-renowned leper colony and a community that recycles 100 per-cent.

Kalaupapa, located on a peninsula of Molokai, is surrounded by one of the world's largest sea cliffs and is accessed by outsiders only once a year for delivery of supplies. During this yearly trip, Tomra Pacific organizes a pick up of recyclables on the empty barge returning from the island.

The Kalaupapa recycling program was started seven years ago by Lucy Whiting, Treasurer of the Kalaupapa Lions Club and a National Park Service employee. Whiting visited Honolulu and got in touch with Joey Hokuttan, Tomra Pacific's Plant Manager. Whiting informed Joey that the island residents had saved all of their aluminium cans and were looking for a way to recycle them. Hokutan began coordinating a recycling
pick-up with the Young Brothers, a group who delivers the supplies to the island once yearly by barge. Now, once the barge has been emptied of supplies, it is filled with thousands of pounds of recyclable metals from the island residents.

Over the past seven years some 130 residents have earned in excess of $5,000 dollars, used for the annual Lions Club Christmas party. What makes this program unique, is that these residents recycle without any outside influence encouraging them to do so. Terry Telfer, Tomra Pacific Area Business Manager said, "They have set an example for the rest of Hawaii" and in doing so, "Not one piece of aluminum, scrap, copper or brass is wasted". Telfer says his group is "Looking forward to going over in September 1999 to once again take out the recyclables from this historic community".