Recycling Aloha

Recycling Aloha was Originally Posted on June 6, 2005 by lavarock

Recycling has been in the news lately, but not in the way you would expect. Oh we try to recycle used item but with less that spectacular results. We now pay a recycle fee on cans and plastic bottles and get most of that back when we recycle them.

On the Big Island, the places to recycle and receive money are few and far between. There was a “to do” with one recycler and its past tax problems and just a whole lot of startup problems.

Unlike other states, we have to get rid of most garbage unlike the mainland. Remember that this place is mostly rock and difficult to dig through. We can’t throw the stuff in a truck and dump it in New Jersey; however, we have been known to put it on a barge and ship it elsewhere to be processed. Like many communities we are told to recycle, yet have problems actually doing it.

On another related topic, a recent blog told why we don’t give visitors an automatic lei. Unless one makes a lei, they cost anywhere from a few dollars to (I don’t know) $30 or $50 for a really nice fresh flower lei. They are all made by hand and lots of love put in them.

Well, imagine this time of year how many leis the graduating senior classes receive. Each senior might receive at least one or perhaps a few. That is a lot of leis. The leis would be worn that night and perhaps part of the next day; then be draped in the room to experience the aroma and soon would dry out; perhaps some flowers to be pressed in a diary.

This morning I heard a news item I had to pass along. Senios on the Garden Isle called Kauai took their graduation ceremonies a bit further recently. Rather than waste the leis, they refrigerated them overnight and then distributed them to other Seniors, those in the Senior Citizens Centers and hospitals on the island. Still having leis left over, they went to the Lihue Airport and surprised some arriving passengers as they spread Aloha a second time.

So yes, it IS possible to receive a lei when you arrive, but it is not automatic. Still, it is a welcome gesture.