ARLINGTON (AP) — With Honolulu’s main landfill expected to close in 2009, Hawaii’s largest city is looking to send its trash to the Pacific Northwest.

Northwest landfills have accepted garbage from as far away as Alaska, but Hawaii’s trash would come from farther away, and there would be more of it.

The trash would take roughly two weeks to cross the Pacific before getting shipped up the Columbia River to a landfill near the Eastern Oregon city of Arlington or a landfill near Roosevelt, Wash.

The trash would be bundled in airtight plastic to prevent unwelcome tropical plants or insect pests from escaping.

The Hawaii landfill is running out of space and it’s located near a beach area where The Walt Disney Co. plans to build a resort complex. The city is seeking bids from companies that could haul at least 100,000 tons of trash each year to the mainland.

“It kind of makes sense not to put trash in your backyard when you live on an island,” said Shawn Teevin, owner of Teevin Bros. Land & Timber Co. in Astoria, which is part of one of the groups looking to bid on the Hawaiian trash contract.

Teevin’s company operates a marine terminal in Rainier, where barges bound for Hawaii are loaded with lumber and other goods. Those barges return empty, so there’s plenty of room for garbage, he said.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Agriculture Department released an environmental assessment proposing to allow shipment of up to 500,000 tons of Hawaiian trash each year to landfills in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It outlined standards to keep pest species out of the region.