Topic: Putting Recycling Bins in the Waipahu
Dear, City and County of Honolulu
I've been living here my whole life and I must say it's the most beautiful place to live. The great beaches, the perfect weather, and just that welcome feeling I get every where I go. I've grown to love this island and this island loves me. This island is constantly advancing and making changes that help to benefit the environment and the community. I mostly love the fact that this island is helping our environment by distributing blue and green bins around to people all over the island to help with collecting recyclables.
But during one of my family's drives around the island last summer sometime in July I noticed that Hawaii Kai was one of the only neighborhoods that have these bins. Why is it that one side of the island gets bins before the other? It just upsets me that it is taking so long for blue bins to come to this side of the island. It's been a year since I've heard about the project, but still I have not seen a blue bin at all here in Waipahu. I understand that there are phases in distributing the bins and Kahuku and Kahaluu are getting their bins, and that all bins will be distributed by May of 2010. If the city and county really wants to have a big impact on the environment I advise that you get some bins to the rest of the island. My family and I always find it hard to "be green" because it's a pain to go out to the Reynolds recycling trucks with all of our cans in order to recycle or cans and bottles. They normally end up sitting outside or being thrown. Not having these bins is really an inconvienece for myself and my family, and we feel we should be able to have the same benefits from these bins as some of the other select few here on Oahu.
I think in order to solve this problem, the city and county should allow our individual neighborhoods to be in charge of counting how many bins are needed, and distribute them. If the bins are the communities responsibility I feel that they will get to the homes in that neighborhood faster. Also, I think as something temporary while we wait for our bins, the city and county should provide recycling curbside pick up. If it's possible, trucks can come over to houses that don't have bins and pick up our recyclables anyways.
All in all, I feel that what the city and county is doing to help it's people be more environmentally friendly is great step forward in helping to modernize and improve our island as a whole. But again, I just wish that the distribution of the bins could be faster because it is really an inconvience to myself and my family. My family and I try to be as green as we can for Oahu but I feel that our city and county should help me achieve that.
I really liked how you started off your paper, it was really intriguing and it made me want to read more. In the first paragraph, "this island" was repeated multiple times and I think you could say O'ahu in one or two so it wont sound repetitive.
ReplyDeleteI think your second paragraph is very organized and has lots of detail. You explain the situation and an experience. This made your paper very strong. I like how you specified the places that already have the bins because it showed that you know what you are talking about.
Your essay is very strongly opinionated but I think that you should add a little more suggestions because your letter speaks about how you feel and you can really help many around you with it. Great job.
-Lexie
Angela!
ReplyDeleteNice job on your angry letter! I like that you touched an issue that you strongly believe in. The introduction was nice! Very sincere!
What I liked most about your letter was that you had a lot of powerful statements in there. For example "why must it take so long to distribute bins to the Windward side and move on to the leeward side."That sentence was great! It made me think like "YEAH! What is taking them so long?!" You left them with a bunch of questions that need to be answered so I hope you do get a letter back in response. Another plus about this letter was the example or experience that you told about recycling in your family.
There really isn't much improvements that need to be done i think (at least thats what i think) because the most important thing that you got out of this letter was leaving the people your addressing unanswered questions. Maybe another ending sentence would be good. Something powerful like "I try to stay green as much as I can but it would be nice if the state could help my area become green as well." or something like that. The last sentence should always leave them feeling something...overall, nice letter!
Niki
Hi Angela,
ReplyDeleteNice job on your letter. And I know how you feel. We just got our bins this summer, even though we're only 5 minutes away from Mililani, which was a pilot program.
I think, though, that you need to check a little bit into the background of this, so that you can acknowledge the details about the program in your letter. Here is a website I found that details the "curbside recycling" program:
http://www.opala.org/solid_waste/curbside.htm
From the schedule posted here, it seems that the whole island will have the bins by May, 2010. So you may want to focus your letter on your suggestions on what the city can do to help you in the meantime.
And, I'm not sure this is accurate, but I don't think the delay was caused by bin distribution issues. I think it has to do with getting the pick up schedules and manpower worked out, because the trash and recyclables and green waste are handled differently.
Anyways, I think you have some good points. YOu just need to acknowledge specifics about the actual program in your letter.
mrs s