Earth Day: Consumers can do part to lessen carbon footprint

Earth Day is the perfect opportunity to salute all of our community partners’ work on behalf of the environment. We in the food and retail industry are always looking to maximize our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, and to keep our land and water healthy and beautiful.

One of the best ways to reduce your carbon and waste footprint is to support your local retailer. When you bring your own bag to your local grocer or retailer, you can get the supplies you need without any additional waste or packaging. Each one of us can make a huge difference. In fact, over the course of our lifetimes, the use of reusable bags by just one person would eliminate 22,000 plastic bags. We strongly support the “bring your own bag” movement because it is a great way to save money and reduce waste.

Local businesses are using solar power, energy efficient lighting, and supporting local farmers and entrepreneurs close to home. All of these efforts lessen the carbon footprint required to get food and goods into your home. Some businesses have even been able to implement reusable transfer boxes — further reducing the waste produced when you purchase food and products. We are embracing retail spaces that are integrated into local communities to reduce the carbon footprint and packaging impact of individual mainland shipping.

Our business community in Hawaii is proud to support Malama 808’s efforts to implement comprehensive litter reduction plans that will reduce the chances of any local waste ending up in our oceans and in our communities. These proposals make sense because they include easy to implement ideas such as ensuring trash cans have lids to keep trash from blowing out, and are designed to reduce all kinds of litter rather than just focusing on one or two types of products.

We also support beach cleanups, which help to reduce the impact of other countries’ trash that unfortunately washes up on our beaches.

Hawaii currently does not have any composting facilities designated to take post-consumer food waste. Compostable products like cups and food containers cost the consumer more and are sent to the same place as all other garbage. On Oahu, that cup or container will be burned for power at HPOWER, just like any other cup or container would be. If compostable PLA products are littered, according to the manufacturer website, they will not break down safely in a marine environment. We strongly support anti-litter efforts for this reason.

Waste-to-energy technology makes it possible for us to get one last use out of waste of all kinds and convert it into power for Oahu homes. This process not only reduced our dependence on importing oil to make power, it also reduces the amount of waste that we have to either put into landfills or ship back to the mainland.

Instead of shipping glass bottles back to the mainland, we could be turning glass into high-quality sand locally as other states have done. There is tremendous demand for this type of sand for construction purposes and there are many other potential uses. We fully support efforts to recycle glass and other items on island to not only reduce total cost, but reduce the carbon footprint of unnecessary shipping.

Food and retail industries will continue to strive to improve our energy and packaging efficiencies to help fight global climate change and improve our environment. Remember, when you shop at your local grocer and retailer in your community, you are reducing the amount of packaging and greenhouse gas needed to supply you with goods and food. We look forward to continuing to service you.

Lauren Zirbel is executive director of the Hawaii Food Industry Association; Tina Yamaki is president of Retail Merchants of Hawaii.