ハワイ旅行･ホテル･ショッピング･グルメ･求人

The Hawaii County Council rejected yesterday a $125 million waste-to-energy plant. The Council voted 5-4 against the Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. project, despite a new offer by Mayor Harry Kim to speed up the planning process. The mayor also tried to Kim also tried to make the deal more attractive by offering a watchdog committee consisting of environmental and recycling groups. In the end, however, the plan was considered too expensive.

City Council members complained of the price of the project. When the project was first proposed in 2002, companies offered estimates of around $20 million while studies last year came in at around $40 million. Many experts have said that the figures were unrealistic. Wheelabrator, which was contracted for the work, was surprised by its own estimates. Managers at the company stated that they were unaware of the high cost of doing business in Hawaii, where the price for labor and materials can be two or three times as much as mainland prices.

The Big Island needs to make a decision about its trash before 2012, when the Hilo landfill will be full. Currently, 300 tons of waste is dumped into the landfill every day. Without building a new landfill or a waste-to-energy plant, the only short-term solution would be shipping the trash to West Hawaii or to the mainland. With the rising cost of fuel, however, both alternatives would be costly.