The sound rising from the community meetings on the Leeward O'ahu landfill — especially from those who didn't bother showing up — was a big, fat ho-hum.

Not surprising. It's easy to yawn when you live too far away from the garbage dump to catch a whiff of that memorable aroma.

So it's hard to blame anyone in particular for the paltry turnout at the "scoping meetings," hearings intended to guide the preparation of an environmental impact statement on the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill. That's the one that was supposed to close in two years, if only our leaders had figured out a better way of dealing with our trash.

No doubt, the residents who are most affected — those on the Wai'anae Coast — have shouted themselves hoarse on the subject. Those in other parts of the island, no doubt, feel no personal urgency on the issue.

Now that the life of the landfill will likely be extended, what happened to the brainstorming on ways to reduce the flow of waste? Who's talking about innovations like "plasma arc" technology these days? Ways of curbing excessive packaging and otherwise stemming the flow at its source?

The city may buy 15 more years of use out of the gulch, but that doesn't mean O'ahu can twiddle its thumbs until then. Unless this island can bring some leadership and vision to bear, we'll all be swimming in our trash by the time the clock runs down.