Maui scrap paper
dumped into landfill

The low market prices in Asia
are causing the pileup on the Valley Isle

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAIKAPU, Maui -- Along a dusty road surrounded by sugar cane fields, trucks roll into Maui Scrap Metal to dump tons of paper to be baled and shipped to Asia for recycling.

But for several months, the bales have been rising because of low market prices. To deal with the overflow, Maui Scrap Metal is now dumping tons of low-grade recycled paper at the county landfill in Puunene.

"We've been hoping for a market breakthrough," said Roger Apana, president of Maui Scrap Metal. "The price was real good. Then it died."

As the county provides more bins for recycling paper on Maui, recycling businesses are seeing depressed markets and rising inventories of used paper.

At Maui Scrap Metal, the paper is exposed to rain and eventually deteriorates.

Apana said he still makes a slight profit shipping recycled newspaper and cardboard. But he said prices have become so low for mixed paper, such as magazines and junk mail, "sometimes, you have to pay them to take it."

Apana said he has dumped about 1,000 tons of mixed paper that was collected over 1 to 1-1/2 years and has 400 tons stacked at his business.

Used paper and cardboard represent 30.2 percent of the solid waste entering Maui's landfill. Of that 30.2 percent, 10 percent is mixed paper.

Honolulu does not collect recycled mixed paper because of its low value, said recycling coordinator Suzanne Jones.

Jones said the city recycles cardboard, newspaper and white office paper. She said mixed paper is burned at the landfill to generate electricity.

On Kauai, BFI Waste Systems shut down its recycling center in December, partially because of depressed paper prices.

"We're not making money and just running expenses," said George Damon, BFI's operation manager. "A lot of customers also weren't recycling enough."

Hawaii County has no paper recycling program.

But it has a "credit diversion program" that pays $40 a ton to businesses that take such waste as paper off the island or use it for other purposes on island.

Maui recycling businesses say the county needs to enact laws and to increase fees at the landfill to encourage paper recycling. People tend to throw out paper if the fees are low, but if they can give it to a recycler for less than landfill fees, then more will recycle.

Landfill fees on Maui are $37 a ton compared with $60 a ton on Oahu.

On Maui, the county has no credit diversion program.

It also doesn't have an ordinance such as the one on Oahu that requires businesses occupying 20,000 square feet or more of office space to recycle white paper.

David Goode, Maui deputy Public Works director, said the county administration is looking at ways to make recycling mixed paper economical and considering raising landfill fees or granting subsidies.

Maui Recycling Services, a business that transports recyclable waste, is also talking with composting businesses about using mixed paper as mulch.

Jones, who has been involved in recycling for 17 years, said fluctuations in market prices for paper are normal and she expects prices to improve.

"I don't think this is something people should get nervous about. It looks like the paper market is stabilizing, and we anticipate in the next year, the paper markets recovering," Jones said.

Apana said it has taken years for recycling to gain momentum on Maui. He hopes to ship mixed paper once prices rise.