Great Neptune's Ghost! Does the Committee really want to count my empty Dinty Moore cans (stored in their own garbage bag!) when I arrive in Hanalei?
- Tom Kirschbaum, Feral
Great Neptune's Ghost! Does the Committee really want to count my empty Dinty Moore cans (stored in their own garbage bag!) when I arrive in Hanalei?
- Tom Kirschbaum, Feral
The point is that the R/C doesn't want us putting anything in the ocean unless we've eaten it first. I'm cool with that.
To make the literalists happy, the R/C could change the first "to" in the subject provision to the word "shall."
The principal issue for the R/C will be to make arrangements for our garbage bags in Hanalei. (Ex: From our boats to the R/C's boat to the dumpster at the beach park, with the park's permission.) Especially if the last few days are warm, I will be anxious to offload that stuff as quickly as possible. If getting it to the landfill will be the racers' responsibility, this racer will have a problem with that.
I am not an expert in ecological matters and I will do whatever the Committee requires, but, seriously, I imagine that the planet would be better off with my empty Dinty Moore cans at the bottom of the sea than in a landfill in Kauai.
- Tom Kirschbaum, Feral
Can anyone clarify what is considered recycleable versus what is not? I know at my house just about everything can be recycled - paper/cardboard, cans, bottles, and plastic. The stuff that doesn't go in the recycle container is mostly leftover food. But it would seem on a boat, throwing purely biological food waste overboard is not a bad thing, or am I wrong? It provides food for fish. So are we expected to save every apple core, every wilted leaf of lettuce, instead of throwing it overboard?
- Mark
I totally agree that anything that will not rot or sink should be carried, not only to Hanalei Bay, but wherever your next port-of-call may be, no matter how far your travels may take you. There is nothing so absolutely disgusting as finding trash floating around when you are a thousand miles from land. Or windrows of plastic bottles, buckets, sandals and flip-flops along the high-water mark on the windward side of a small, isolated island somewhere mid-ocean.
I have a lot of respect for the sea, and have carried garbage for 6700 miles before getting rid of it. This includes glass, all plastics, tin foil, waxed or glossy paper (although I do tend to think it would eventually break down) Over the wall goes the tin cans, soft papers, weatherfax paper, food scraps, unsuccessful dinners. Tea bags, coffee grounds and filters. Probably some other stuff as well
I remain convinced the case can be made that tin cans, especially when immersed in seawater are biodegradable. Certainly aluminium cans will decay in short order in the bilge, let alone under water. Again, I am not in any way suggesting that all garbage/refuse should be discarded overboard.
And nothing at all should go over the side until well off the coast – I usually hold onto everything until around a hundred miles off.
I accept that the Race COMMITTEE has the ability and privilege to make, alter, and enforce rules as they see fit, and will abide by whatever bandwagon they happen to jump on, but quite frankly, this seems a bit much.
Maybe we could organize a group outing to the Hanalei landfill for a first-hand look once we all arrive????
Jim/Haulback
Reminds me of an earlier race to Mazatlan. Our crew went to great lengths to contact all competitors encouraging "Leave A Clean Wake." We spoke at the send off dinner, handed out fliers, posted a reminder billboard on our stern at the dock.
The fleet was exceptionally responsible about keeping trash onboard, back in the days when usual practice was to toss it over the side. When the two dozen odd race boats arrived in the Mazatlan inner harbor, everyone dutifully took their garbage bags ashore to the local trash cans.
Next morning at sunrise, the local trash guy arrived, took the cans to the edge of the seawall, and dumped the contents into the Harbor. For quite a while the fleet was afloat in its own trash.
I think by this discussion most of the SHTP fleet are well aware of our responsibilities as stewards of the ocean we are crossing. And can thank RC for reminding us in no uncertain terms.
Ok, so I found a web page that lists what can be recycled in Kauai:
#1 and #2 Plastics (plastic bottles)
Aluminum cans (no tin cans)
Cardboard
Glass
Junk Mail (brochures, maps, magazines, etc.)
Newspapers
Containers must be rinsed and have their caps/lids removed. (I hope salt water is OK..) Notice that tin cans are not allowed. So those empty Dinty Moore cans are not recycleable, they go in with the normal trash. But all the newspapers and junk mail you will be getting on the way over can be recycled!
The recycle center is in the town of Hanalei, at the Hanalei Transfer Station. Hopefully the RC will be able to help the racers with taking their bags of recycleables to the center...
http://www.kauaiexplorer.com/guides/recycle.php
- Mark
Darn,
I haven't been on for a couple of days and miss a hot thread!
As a retired Biochemist whose brother is a retired Marine Biologist from Scripps (who is a full time cruiser currently in Bocas Del Toro, Panama) I could probably make a case for some trash going overboard, but................. Why bother???? It is a two week window out of our lives and isn't "cruising", it's a race. I could make a similar argument for the need for an emergency rudder for my boat, but again, "why bother." If you want to race, Follow the Rules.......... If you want to cheat about this or anything else, you probably can and none of the crew will rat on you but that does seem to go against the spirit of yacht racing.
To that end, I will take my glass garbage (with all the rest of my garbage) and put it in bags in spite of the fact that it started from sand and will return to sand more easily in the ocean than in a land fill, and have it for the committee boat at Hanalei when they bring me my MaiTai.......
As a side note, and perhaps the beginning of another debate, what does the transfer station in Hanalei do with the recycleables? I am pretty sure there are no glass or paper plants on any of the islands and I would even be surprised at a plastic bottle facility that could handle that volume of recycled plastic. If they are truly "recycled", they would then have to be shipped to the mainland. The energy required for this operation may well harm the environment much more than the stuff being dumped in the ocean even though it "sounds" more green. There are many actual examples of this sort of thing going on currently.
This ought to keep the debate going for a couple more posts?
John
John;
I tend to agree, but no matter how silly it seems, I will follow the rules to the letter, saving all garbage to hand over to the RC on arrival. This race it too much fun to get bothered over collecting a few extra bags of trash in the lazzarette.
Unless I hear differently, this will include all food scraps (uneaten) and afore-mentioned unsuccessful dinners.
I was kind of wondering what facilities would be on the islands for actual 'recycling' as opposed to 'gathering' - Surely they would just dump it in the landfill rather than ship it all back to the mainland by ship?? Or would they use belly-dump barges out past the 12 mile limit???
But having brought up the subject inadvertently, (sorry!!) probably best that I should not take any more random pokes at it.
Jim/Haulback
You folks have fun out there. I can't get recycling right on dry land, now it is a requirement for the SHTP ? Do you have to carry a green bag, and brown bag ? If you get kelp in the rigging in the first few hours of the race does that go into a yard waste bag ? Is there a finish line inspection of the bags contents for the first 3 placed finishers ?
Brian