Opala

Know Your Opala

This project is a partnership between Compost Kaua’i, Ho’ike TV, and Kaua’i Community Radio.

Mahalo nui loa to the County of Kaua’i’s Office of Economic Development for making this possible.

March 20, 2024

Opala Trash Talk for April: Landfill

**sound of truck backing up, beep beep, rumble of materials dumping out** Hear that?

That’s the sound of 260 tons of trash entering Kauaʻi’s landfill every day. Except not all of it is trash. In fact, 45% of what enters the landfill doesn’t have to be there. It can be composted, recycled, repaired, or repurposed. And that’s a good thing! Because the Kekaha landfill is running out of room. **gasp** Yeah. That’s the sound of someone realizing that our island’s one and only landfill will be full by 2030, which means — by the time my daughter is 5 years old, Kauaʻi will have nowhere to put its waste. I don’t want my child to grow up around piles of ʻōpala. So what do we do? Kauaʻi, it’s up to us to know our ʻōpala and do our part to make less of it. Let’s compost our food scraps, recycle our bottles, repair what’s broken, and share resources within our community instead of buying so much new. We’re so lucky to live in the most beautiful place on Earth, but if we’re not careful, the Garden Isle could become the Garbage Isle like that. 

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