recycling

[Lee DeJongh]

I'm interested in what people are actually doing re: recycling. Here, in Wisconsin, we have mandatory recycling of paper, plastics and glass. Our local town makes it easy for us. Each house has a plastc bin, laik a clothes hamper, with its number on it. and all glass and plaastic must be put in it. It's nice to wash them first and remove labels but not necessary. All paper, cardboard, newspaper, junk mail, cerreal boxes are put separately. Most people use grocery bags.

All other trash is placed seperately by the curb. If the garbagemen see recycles in your garbage, they issue you a citation and won't pick it up until you remove them. So basically only soiled paper gets put in the garbage. Our personal pickup is every Monday. Quite easy since no sorting.

My questionis: what are other places including Hawaii like?

The other time honored recyling here is Garage sales.

[Lee DeJongh]

oops forgot metals and metal cans.

[Cindy V]

While staying in Pahoa in April we had to do a dump run, the Pahoa transfer station had bins for cardboard, glass and cans. Since we were sorting I can only assume the material will be recycled.

Aloha

[JerryCarr]

Aloha Lee and Cindy! The recycling program in Puna (and all the Big Island, I presume) is voluntary, and requires a bit more effort than in Wisconsin. Since the County does not have a centralized rubbish removal system, one must either hire a private service, or take your trash to a transfer station. I take our stuff to the Keaau Transfer Station, which has a wider array of bins for recycling than Pahoa and a sort of swapping station for reuseable items that looks like a permanent garage sale.

My question for other resident forum members is: Do any of the private rubbish haulers offer recycling opportunities, and if so, do they charge more?

[Les C]

Jerry, I'm not aware of any private rubbish haulers, but I haven't lived on the BI very long. The Kea'au and Hilo transfer stations are supposed to have the most recycling options on the east side. You can get all the info at
www.recyclehawaii.org/

I just moved from Palo Alto CA. That city had a fairly comprehensive recycling program. I didn't live within the trash service area so I didn't have the curbside pickup and I'm not familiar with the procedures and penalties. I had to haul my recycling, just like I do here. A worker at the Kea'au recycling operation said that Recycle Hawai'i is aspiring to be like the Palo Alto program. You can get an idea of what they take to recycle there at their website
www.cityofpaloalto.org/public-works/rec-index.html

A PDF of the guide to recycling on the BI is in the middle of the list on this page
www.recyclehawaii.org/pubs.htm

I have been thinking that there is a lot more that could be recycled on the BI, but after looking at the allowed and not-allowed lists on the website, it looks like they are offering a good amount of opportunities. Materials not yet taken which are just difficult to put into rubbish include: plastics numbered 3 thru 7, which includes a lot of food containers and product packaging; blocks of styrofoam as found in computer and electronics packaging; and paperboard (as in a cereal box) is not accepted at Hilo or Kea'au, but other sites that do the 2-stream sort will take it. 2-stream sort lets you divide your recyclables into non-HI5 glass and mixed recyclables. I wish that the hazardous waste collection, which includes household batteries, happened a bit more frequently than once a year on each side of the BI.

There is a relatively new company in Palo Alto called Green Citizen that properly recycles electronic waste, from large monitors and tvs to discs and batteries. You have to pay a nominal sum for some items. They are also involved with education about computer waste and proper recycling methods of it. They'll tell you about how China recycles the computer waste that is sent there. Horrible stuff.

Les

Edited by - Les C on 07/06/2006 09:52:32

[Robin C]

Hi, Lee.

We moved to Volcano in May.
I've been trying to figure out the recycling situation also.

It seems like you can recycle the same stuff as you can on the mainland, it just takes a bit more effort. You need to sort the items yourself and must take them to a designated transfer station. We bought a bunch of plastic garbage cans so we can sort as we use.
This site has been helpful: http://www.recyclehawaii.org/

I have also subscribed to the Hawaii Freecycle Yahoo group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreecycleBigIsland/
The thinking: "One man's trash is another man's treasure" is alive and flourishing in this group.

Robin

[Kapohocat]

That is so true! (one man's trash)...

We cut out a peice of driveway and about 6-7 freecyclers come and got pieces of concrete to use as stepping stones, backfill, etc...

Amazing!


Catherine Dumond
808 217-7578
"We help make building your dream home a reality"

[Punamom]

I never have more than a quarters worth of bottles to exchange so I just leave them at the recycle place as a donation ,Its not worth waiting 10 minutes while they go through your trash and sort it, what a pain I so wish we had curbside service.



Edited by - punamom on 07/08/2006 02:04:17

[Carey]

Many of our older neighbors in Keaau town proper have garbage pick-up. You pay forthe service. Most use Orchid Isle Rubbish & Recycle (959-0475) (I have not noticed any recycle containers, just garbage bags on Friday). Have also seen Leo's Rubbish (935-5850) truck a few times, & Generation Sanitation (640-6815)is in the phone book, & lists most of the Puna neighborhoods on their ad.

[Carey]

Sorry, to double post, but Keaau transfer had intended to send electronics to be recycled mainland, Matson had a container there for the loading. It was stopped because Dept. of Ag. found snails in the container, & it couldn't be shipped.
The problem with recycleing here is that you have to have a market for the recycled product AND a manufacturer willing to put up the upfront costs locally, or be able to economically ship the material to a place that can recycle. Add into the mix the fact that many people do not maintain their recycleables in 'reuse condition'. It is far easier and cheaper to recyle a clean 'pure' material stream than to have to sort out foriegn materials. Then add the fact that anything shipped off island has to be free from invasive pests, and you get an idea why there is not more recycle options offered.
One thing to look at is, can you utilize any of your waste stream at home? Paperboard can be added to your compost pile as the 'dry brown waste' that is needed (equal parts green & brown). Your cereal box today can be your soil next season. Get a worm bin for your kitchen scraps (The "tea" from this soil is incredible, see Piper, the worm lady, for more info:
http://www.hawaiirainbowworms.com/index.html
Aloha, Carey