MAUI COUNTY MISSING AN ESSENTIAL SERVICE

Maui County needs a MRF.  What’s a murf? That’s the acronym for Material Recovery Facility, something Maui is sorely in need of.  Communities that are concerned with recycling consider MRFs to be an essential service, like running water, electricity and landfills.  MRFs are where materials are taken, sorted and processed for reuse.  They extend the landfill and allow for resource recovery.

74% of the garbage on Maui is commercial and 26% is residential.  While the county provides a facility for recycling residential waste, they do not provide for commercial waste.

The business sector currently sends its recyclable materials to a handful of processors who are willing to risk equipment failures and fluctuations in the market value of those materials to provide this service.  When the process breaks down, the haulers arrange for storage and go searching for someone who will take the material and reuse it.

Imagine if the landfill suddenly closed its gates.  Where would all the garbage go?  Would the haulers just stop picking it up?

Maui County can’t have it both ways.  They can’t say they support recycling until they provide a reliable facility for everyone.  We have a choice.  We can put our tax dollars into more landfills or worse, an incinerator or we can put them into a resource recovery facility.  I think the choice is clear.  I want my tax dollars to fund a MRF.

Camille Armantrout