Halfway up the steps that climb the steep, terraced hill to the Pacarro home on Sierra Drive, a wooden sign pointed the way with a green arrow and the words "Kaimuki Plantation." This was not an oxymoron: There was food, and lots of it, being grown here.
The hot air was filled with the scent of mango, banana, papaya and citrus trees and the heady aroma of compost cooking in a heap. A trickling and splashing sound came not from a fountain or creek, but from an aquaponics system that irrigates and fertilizes beds of kale, okra, taro, parsley and eggplant with nutrient-rich water pumped from a tilapia tank.
At the top of the hill, Kahi Pacarro was feeding the critters whose waste, in turn, feeds the garden. Only the fish get store-bought food. For the chickens, Pacarro emptied food scraps onto a fenced-in compost pile, attracting a flock of big brown Rhode Island Red-Leghorn crosses that came running through a tunnel that connects to their spacious coop. Raised from chicks bought at Asagi Hatchery, the birds lay eggs and go nameless.
"I can’t get too attached to them because I’m going to have to eat them someday," Pacarro said with a regretful smile. The same goes for the tilapia.
Next it was the worms’ turn, as scraps were added to a tray in their multilayered bin. What the worms and chickens can’t eat goes into a Bokashi bucket, which composts meat and bones with the addition of wheat mill husks (a branlike waste product ) and em-1, a solution containing microorganisms that break down organic matter.
"We don’t throw away any food scraps at all," Pacarro said, adding that he and his wife, Louise, have recently learned to make pickled food, including kim chee. "And we don’t bring any single-use plastics into our home."
Pacarro, 36, is executive director of Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, a nonprofit organization founded in 2012 with the mission to inspire coastal stewardship. Best known for its regular beach and shoreline cleanups, the group also educates the public about how to divert the seemingly relentless tide of trash that runs out into the oceans.
At the most recent count, this added up to almost 270,000 tons of plastic — an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris — in seas worldwide, according to a study published in December by PLOS-ONE, journal of the Public Library of Science. Eighty percent of this plastic runs or blows off the land.
It’s one thing to pick up oceanfront trash and another to generate less of it, and that’s the message Pacarro talks and walks. While "Earth Day is every day" remains a time-honored slogan — the observance’s 45th anniversary is Wednesday — zero waste is the newest green mantra among the eco-caring, from householders to restaurateurs.
In a walk-through of the Pacarros’ plantation-style cottage, built in 1938, he showed how the couple are reducing their eco-footprint (the nonrenewable resources, such as fossil-fuel products they consume and the waste they produce).
"Hanging clothes to dry is a huge energy saver. It reduces our bill by about $15 a month," Pacarro said, pausing by the clothesline on the covered lanai outside the kitchen door. An outdoor shower helps to irrigate the sliver of lawn.
In addition to a solar water heater, he said roughly 75 percent of the property’s electricity comes from rooftop photovoltaic panels. The power bill was reduced to $260 from $400 a month for three living units and six occupants. The bill would be $100 if they owned the panels, he said, but they are leasing their PV system.
To reduce use of packaging, they buy staple foods in bulk and refill containers with laundry and liquid soap dispensed at Down to Earth and Kokua Market in Moiliili. They use wood-handled toothbrushes ("toothbrushes are at least 10 percent of the plastic trash we find") and stainless single-blade refillable razors, and Louise Pacarro makes their hair gel and deodorant.
The occasional Ziploc or plastic bag that makes it into the mix gets washed or reused as a bag for their skimpy output of garbage. Pacarro opens a cupboard to show the glasses and dishes, none made of plastic and most bought at thrift shops.
"When we have a party, we ask guests to bring cans instead of bottles, because aluminum is the most recyclable material," he said.
But while he takes every opportunity to educate, Pacarro doesn’t preach to the choir or anyone else. His smile is so gentle, his manner so relaxed and genuine, it would feel downright impolite not to listen.
Lately, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii has expanded its work to include helping organizers of large events such as the Triple Crown of Surfing, Wanderlust Hawaii and the Volcom Pipe Pro "mitigate their impact on our waste infrastructure by diverting as much as we can to farms and other outlets," Pacarro said. "Better to have more fertile soil than burning compostable matter for HPOWER."
Pacarro works full time as the nonprofit’s sole employee, overseeing 25 regular volunteers, themselves eloquent spokesmen and women for the organization’s educational mission, as witnessed at a recent Saturday morning cleanup at Kakaako Waterfront Park.
"This is a state beach park, so it’s not protected by the city no-smoking ban," explained volunteer Emily Stevenson, 28, as she helped sort the gallons of cigarette butts collected from the grass, walkways and black rocks fronting the surf breaks known as Point Panic, Incinerators and Flies after the open garbage dump, incinerator and tuna cannery that once lined this stretch of urban shore.
Surfrider Foundation, a partner organization, planned to present the butts during testimony on behalf of a bill currently before the Legislature that would ban smoking in state parks, Stevenson said.
As gloved volunteers brought in trash bags full of plastic and paper picnicware and plastic bags of all sizes, Pacarro discussed an amendment to Oahu’s plastic bag ban, which is set to go into effect in July.
Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii and other environmental groups opposed the exemption of so-called "biodegradable" single-use plastic bags. The new language, which changed "biodegradable" to "compostable" plastic bags, is also flawed because there are no commercial composting facilities in Hawaii, and the bags won’t break down in a compost pile, according to Pacarro.
"In the environment a ‘compostable’ bag poses the same amount of risk to marine animals as a plastic bag," he said.
It was a low-key but hardworking group of about 100 volunteers, including seniors, toddlers and teens getting community service points for school. "We’re finding tons of butts and bottle caps, and diapers and cardboard," said Shannon Lau, 32, hauling up a full garbage bag with her sister, Malia Lau, 35, and niece Kira Witlarge, 18 months.
Out on the rocks, others collected plastic fishing lines, which can entangle marine animals, and toxic lead weights. "But overall, we found less fishing debris than last time, which means the fishermen are being more responsible," Pacarro said.
"They don’t want to lose the weights, which are expensive, even though they’re the cheapest part of a fisherman’s equipment," said Paul Carson, 54, Hawaii manager for Patagonia, the outdoor clothing manufacturer, which has funded Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii projects through its grant programs. He praised Pacarro’s ability to interact with the public.
"We’re very lucky to have a partner like him."
What’s next? On Saturday, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii is hosting the Earth Day Cleanup 2015 at Kailua Beach, followed by an after-party for volunteers. Then Pacarro heads off to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, to teach the scientists working there "how to separate what’s recyclable instead of sending it all to HPOWER."
Pacarro had been a real estate developer until he experienced a change of heart — and vocation — after he and Louise left their jobs seven years ago to travel the world.
"We saw a relationship between the way people treated the environment and how happy they were with their lives. We visited people in the rural Philippines where they don’t have plastic stuff, where they eat off banana leaves and are undistracted by consumerism," said Louise Pacarro, 30.
They were also befriended by and spent time with the founders of Sustainable Coastlines New Zealand.
"It was when I got home to Hawaii and saw it with fresh eyes that I began thinking of what I wanted to leave behind," Kahi Pacarro said.
The couple started a discussion group with friends, including their hosts from New Zealand, "about how to make the world a better place," Louise Pacarro said. They founded Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii (completely separate from the New Zealand group) and started cultivating their hillside, restoring rock walls and building a deck and picnic table from reclaimed wood.
Beneath the spreading branches of an old mango tree, a visit to their home feels like a Disney adventure, Swiss Family Robinson style.
Living green, both Pacarros attested, is far more fun than sacrifice. After all, they have a hot tub on their hill, stoked by a solar water heater.
