Oregonians recycle over 50 percent of their garbage, so the state has plenty of surplus space to import other states waste. This seems to be the current practice of Oregon's leaders, while Oregon promotes its residents to recycle and reuse, which Oregonians are very good at and pride themselves as being "green" and conscious of their environment. I would gather to believe that most Oregonians do not know that their beautiful state is the dumping grounds for other states waste and will be accepting tons of Hawaii's waste adding to the list of imported garbage. Hawaii isn't the only state taking advantage of this generosity. Oregon is ranked the fifth largest importer of garbage in the country, and its neighbor across the river Seattle sends over 2 million tons of trash a year to the Columbia Ridge Landfill.

Why should Oregonians allow garbage to be shipped into their state? Why should Oregonians give a darn about Disney World and their problems associated to build a new glorified carnival that happens to be slated to be near Hawaii's garbage dump? What is the State of Oregon benefiting from allowing this waste to be shipped into our state? Nothing! The only people who will benefit from this stinky business venture is possibility Teevin Brothers if the garbage is docked at their dock and the private but publicly funded rail road P.W. (Portland Western) that received $7 million in tax payer dollars. The amount of garbage that will be sent every year is expected to be over 500,000 tons, and the refuse will be dumped up river near Arlington.

Garbage will be shrink wrapped in several layers of plastic to seal away any possible threats to our environment has been promoted as a 100% safe way to transport the garbage and keep any bugs safely out of our environment. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case, the company, Hawaii Waste Systems that has been awarded the contract to seal the garbage has run into severe problems with their plastic sealing process, torn bags. Torn bags are suppose to be marked with yellow tape are to be sent back for re-sealing, they have been left and ignored and stacked along with bags that are ready for shipment.

It is ironic that a state like Oregon and its people should be awarded for being "GREEN" by accepting some one else's garbage. The issue here is not really the shipment of the garbage but why are we not implementing other ideas to rid us of garbage, we should be figuring out alternative ways to use garbage instead of burying it all over our world. What the heck is wrong with the human race, why are we so slow in doing what is right before the problem escalates to a point of nearly no return. Come-on people we should demand alternatives in the way we deal with garbage.



But then I guess people really don't think about garbage until it is stinking in their backyard.