Hawai`i County Fails to Back Diversion Efforts, Recyclers Say

posted in: October 1998 | 0

In 1992, Act 324 required counties and the state to divert as much waste as possible out of the waste stream and set specific goals: 25 percent by 1995, 50 percent by 2000.

On this front, Hawai`i County is lagging.

According to Nancy Crawford, business manager for the County of Hawai`i’s Department of Public Works, the county currently employs one green waste recycler and three glass recyclers. Also, about six companies participate in a diversion grant program, under which the county offers recyclers a subsidy of $40 a ton to keep glass, plastic, ferrous metals, paper and cardboard out of the landfills.

These private recyclers, according to a county summary of diversion claims for fiscal year 1997-98, diverted 341.13 tons of newspaper, 4,210.20 tons of cardboard, 52.51 tons of ledger paper, 156.45 tons of mixed paper, 19.97 tons of cans, 1,323.68 tons of glass, and 1,426.58 tons of greenwaste for a total of 7,530.52 tons of diverted garbage.

Sandra Roberts, an educator for Recycle Hawai`i, reported in a February 1995 Ka`u Landing article that the Big Island landfills approximately 145,000 tons a year. Based on this estimate, the county diverted approximately 5.19 percent of its waste last year. This may be lower than the actual figure because numbers for bulk metal recovered through the county’s car-crushing program were not available. However, it is still far below the diversion percentages set by Act 324.

Michael Allen, owner of Environmental Recycling of Hawai`i, has harshly criticized the administration of Big Island mayor Stephen Yamashiro for having “very little, if any, commitment toward waste diversion. Since any diversion program implemented leans heavily on recycling, the track record [of the county] can speak for itself,” he wrote in a 1994 opinion piece in the Hawai`i Tribune-Herald.

Allen told Environment Hawai`i that the county’s more recent request for proposals to operate a green-waste recycling facility for West Hawai`i is the biggest example of the county’s resistance to recycling he has seen in his 14 years in the business.

The RFP requires the contractor to have a $15,000 performance bond — “something that has never been asked for before,” Allen says. It gives the contractor just half an acre to operate within — which, he notes, is not nearly enough space. Other requirements of the county RFP are needless, he says, pointing to the requirements to completely fence the operating area and to have on site an office, amenities, water and electricity. Insurance requirements that he says are unrealistically high further add to the operator’s cost.

The real “kicker,” he says, is a condition in the RFP that allows the county to cancel the contract at any time, and without any liability.

“Nobody in their right mind would bid on this,” he says, and if someone did, the bid would be so high the county couldn’t afford to pay them. Allen’s company did submit a bid on the project, but, he says, the county probably would not be able to pay even a tenth of his projected costs.

— Teresa Dawson

Volume 9, Number 4 October 1998

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