Hawai`i Island residents and organizations saved $229,919 in fees for the record 172 tons of electronic waste they've recycled over the first half of 2023. The savings is thanks to Act 151, which funds the program by manufacturers of electronic devices sold in the state.
     West Hawai`i residents made good use of twice monthly collection events in Kailua-Kona, where lead acid batteries, solar panels and newspaper are also collected. (map)

     We can express our mālama ka ʻāina, caring for our land, by responsibly disposing of things we can no longer use. The lead acid battery in our cars typically expires in 3 - 5 years.
     From 2015 - 2019, an average of 202,013 vehicles were registered each year in Hawai`i County. If owners replaced their car battery every four years, that would mean over 50,500 batteries on average discarded every year. That's a lot of batteries!
     In the first half of 2023, Mr. K's collected 78 tons of lead acid batteries (about 3,900 units) from Big Island residents for responsible recycling. Why is this important? Three reasons:

• Lead acid batteries are super recyclable. The typical battery is at least 80% recycled material to begin with, and its 3 main components -- lead, plastic and acid -- are close to 100% recyclable. And the lead can be recycled multiple times without loss of performance.
  
  
• In 2021, 4.7 million tons of lead was extracted from the earth. Every pound of lead that is recycled is a pound that we don't need to mine ... potentially multiple times.
  
  
• Responsible recycling prevents the poisoning of people and the environment, as lead is a potent neurotoxin and a toxic metal.
  
  

      See below for a visualization of how much has been extracted in 2021 alone.  Note: 1 "brick" = 1,000,000 metric tonnes; 1 metric tonne = 1.1 ton; 4.3 m tonnes = about 4.74 m tons.

Q: Hi, Brianne! Thanks for taking a few minutes away from operating the baler on a very hot day to talk with me. When did you first start at Mr. K's, and what made you interested in the job?
Hi. It was in 2021. I was working in the kitchen at a restaurant, and I was tired of being inside. I wanted to be outside. I love being outside. Sometimes we [employees] complain about the heat and the rain, but outside, we can see everything. Gestures at the sky and all around.

Q: What do you like most about working here?
My co-workers. They are cool, nice and down-to-earth people who are easy to talk with and non-judgmental.

Q: What's the hardest thing about working here?
The heavy stuff. When the forklifts are being used somewhere and a big commercial load of electronic waste arrives, we have to drag and move it ourselves.

Q: What's something you'd like our customers to know?
It would really help if they could take the caps off their bottles and not have other rubbish in their bags. Before I worked here,  I left the caps on, but thought, oh, it's their job to take them off. But then I started working here and it's so time consuming to have to take off all these caps, especially if we're really busy.

Above: Brianne and the baler.

     Claire Cea, office manager, shared how she values Brianne being part of the team up front as cashier. When customers happen to get upset about something, her understated demeanor and practical approach reassure them as they see her calmly taking next steps to resolve the issue.
     Brianne has also been a great help as a baler operator. "The baler is a big piece of equipment, and if it breaks, it can be down for a while," explained Claire. As baler operator, Brianne has demonstrated that not only can she operate the baler safely and responsibly, but also that she can work on her own, as the baler is in a rather isolated spot behind the building.
     Asked what advice she might give to others thinking about working in recycling and possibly operating machinery, Brianne laughs and says, "Don't be afraid to get dirty!"