Grade 6 Conservation

How has technology changed the way we consume and dispose of our products?

Hawaiians have a famous saying…

Mai ho‘omāuna i ka ‘ai o huli mai auane‘i o Hāloa e nānā. Do not be wasteful of food lest Haloa turn around and stare at you.

Early Hawaiians recycled most everything.

They mended poi boards.

And they repaired their ipu.

In early Hawai‘i, people did not have to worry about plastic bags, glass bottles, or disposable diapers. Recycling was a common form of technology. “Sanitary regulations imposed by kapu controlled the disposal of garbage and human wastes” (Mitchell, 1992).

But modern technology has changed the way we use products today.

Recycling plants turn old products into new ones.

Composting bins turn green waste into fertilizer.

Commercially, green waste is composted in open piles to produce organic fertilizer.

Waste-to-energy plants turn garbage into energy, which supplies power to our homes. The H-Power plant on O‘ahu processes over 2,000 tons of garbage a day!

Landfills are the most common way to dispose of waste.

Garbage is dumped into large cavities in the ground, waste is spread into thin layers, packed firmly and covered.

In the U.S., each person produces about 4.5 pounds of rubbish a day! That’s a lot of garbage!

What would happen if we were to reduce the amount of waste we generate daily?

What can you do to ho ‘ ōla (heal) your ahupua ‘ a?

Ua Pau!