City should sort out waste, not residents

I had to don my science hat after reading about adding an additional refuse bin for residents to further sort out the already complicated and time-consuming task that really belongs to the city to complete (“Honolulu exploring new ways to manage food waste,” Star-Advertiser, June 14).

It is not the job of the public to segregate the many different classifications of garbage. In addition to another day of the calendar to remember to leave the bin curbside, when we are talking about food waste, remember that after three days, insect eggs begin to hatch into maggots.

That would be a problem if people don’t leave their food waste bin out for weekly pickup because it wasn’t filled up. Leaving it for another week would be a vector-control disaster. This is why food waste is included in the weekly pickup of the gray bins.

City workers could have a processing plant to separate the food waste from within the contents of the gray bin. Funding would be from the HI-5 beverage fee after converting it into a nonrefundable fee.

Michael Nomura

Kailua

Trump lawyers acted unethically

I am disturbed by the prominent role that three lawyers — Kenneth Chesebro, John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani — played in the attempted coup.

Chesebro justified his work by saying, “It’s what we (lawyers) do” — i.e., develop contrived, baseless legal theories for his clients.

I take issue with his statement. I have no respect for lawyers who operate in that manner. This amoral approach to our profession is not acceptable nor, in my opinion, ethical.

Lawyers like these three create chaos, confusion, needless delay and expense for the parties and the judicial system. They damage the reputation of our legal profession.

Unfortunately, gaming the justice system as they do is time-consuming, which allows their damaging and dangerous plots to take hold in the minds of certain segments of our society. Those who knew better should have spoken out publicly long before now.

Judith A. Pavey

Attorney at law

Downtown Honolulu

Large game fish contain many toxins

A headline said, “Georgia family reels in monster marlin off Kona.” I hope all who feast on the catch enjoy the extra ingredients in the marlin.

Fish can concentrate extremely high levels of chemical residues in their flesh and fat, as much as 9 million times that of the water in which they live. Mercury isn’t the only dangerous toxin in fish flesh — people who eat fish also ingest PCBs. As big fish eat little fish, PCBs become more concentrated in their flesh.

Ciguatera toxin is harmless to fish but poisonous to humans. The toxin is odorless and tasteless, and it is heat-resistant, so cooking does not destroy the toxin. One of the most common illnesses associated with eating seafood is ciguatera fish poisoning. While ciguatera is rarely fatal, it is incurable and has unpleasant symptoms that can last for days, week, or in some rare cases, years.

Congratulations on nabbing the monster and helping deplete the already dwindling marine life populations.

Gary Harrold

Hilo

Honua Ola better than burning oil

Has the state Public Utilities Commission compared the cost of worldwide pollution from using oil instead of bioenergy (“Honua Ola Bioenergy asks Hawaii PUC to reconsider rejection of project,” Star-Advertiser, June 3)?

I bet the Honua Ola Bioenergy plant would put out less pollution. The biofuel does not need extracted, transported more than once, and refined before burning.

Is anyone putting any oil back in the ground? And now the price of oil and lumber?

Depending on others is not very sustainable. We should conserve and replenish. Forty cents per kilowatt hour for the life of the contract, and we are paying 50 cents now. And the technology will evolve.

Jon Wakefield

Pahoa, Hawaii island

Candidates should address water crisis

On the island of Oahu, the biggest current problem is not the rail, not the homeless, not affordable housing. It’s the potential loss of our water supply. Yet few if any of our elected officials appear to be alarmed, and I don’t find those currently running in the upcoming elections even mentioning the water problem in their statements.

We the voters should be putting pressure on every single person running for office to demand an answer on how they would help accelerate the draining of the Red Hill fuel tanks. The Navy is stalling the draining of the tanks, as it has been for years.

Our elected officials, those in office and those running for election, need to step up and push for a faster resolution.

David Lee

Hawaii Kai

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