LIHU‘E — Ever witness someone attempting to stuff just one more cardboard box or milk carton into a county drop bin for recyclables? Or maybe they’ve given up and left their items in a plastic bag on the outside of
LIHU‘E — Ever witness someone attempting to stuff just one more cardboard box or milk carton into a county drop bin for recyclables? Or maybe they’ve given up and left their items in a plastic bag on the outside of the green dumpster?
The Zero Waste Kaua‘i Chair John Harder said it’s an issue that could be resolved by expanding the Kaua‘i Recycles Drop Bin program to include additional locations around the island.
“As you get more bins, it takes pressure off some of the existing sites, especially on the weekends,” he said Saturday. “There needs to be more so they’re more convenient and more accessible.”
Providing them at every transfer station and integrating them onto school campuses would be one solution, he said, citing Kaua‘i Community College as an example.
“Bins are hauled when they are full,” Solid Waste Program Coordinator Allison Fraley wrote in an e-mail Friday when asked how often they are emptied. “The frequency of pick up depends on the location. Kapa‘a and Lihu‘e are picked up several times per week, while Lawa‘i and Kekaha are not used as often and don’t get hauled as frequently. While the contractor has pick-up schedule for the bins, they cannot control instances when a few people show up with huge loads and fill the bins.”
An average of 130 tons are recycled each month, she said.
Kaua‘i County pays Garden Isle Disposal nearly $200,000 per year or about $120 per ton to keep the program in operation, she said. The contract is for bin rental, bin hauling, public education, materials sorting, processing and shipment to market.
The program began in 1991 with two drop-off locations and grew to the eight that are now located across the island.
“While the program has a cost, it is comparable to hauling garbage and burying it at landfill and recycling saves precious natural resources and air space at the landfill,” Fraley wrote.
But Harder said there has not been enough education and awareness raised regarding the importance of recycling.
“I don’t think the county has dedicated adequate resources to that task,” he said, adding that it would require “reaching out to people who normally wouldn’t recycle.”
Having more bins island-wide would be more beneficial as opposed to implementing a curbside recycling program, Harder said.
“If I lived anywhere other than Lihu‘e where they’re starting (the curbside recycling pilot program), I’d be disappointed,” he said.
Everything boils down to funding, he said, but added that “it doesn’t cost a whole lot to add another bin and pay for hauling.”
There are also other ways the county can step up recycling efforts, he said, especially by re-hiring a recycling coordinator — a position which was frozen in recent months.
“A recycling coordinator can work with contractors and adjust as necessary a lot of things that need to be done,” Harder said.
Last fiscal year, county offices recycled 15,504 pounds of newspaper and 56,160 pounds of mixed paper, saving more than 1,620 trees and the equivalent of roughly 47 cubic yards at the Kekaha Landfill, according to a recent county press release.
Nearly 80 percent of all county offices were found to have newspaper recycling bins, while 76 percent are collecting and recycling mixed paper, the release states.
When the survey was conducted, approximately half of the offices had HI-5 recycling bins in them, and those that didn’t have a bin were provided with one.
The majority of the money generated by county employees from the redemption of HI-5 beverage containers is used for office snacks or parties, while some of it is donated to charity, the press release says.
On the other hand, Garden Isle Disposal keeps “commodity value of the recyclables” generated from pick-up at drop bins.
“Since the bins are unmanned — with the exception of Hanalei transfer station — we do not know if they are overflowing unless someone calls to report,” Fraley said.
To report an overflowing bin call 241-4837.
• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.
