Firms offer to take city
trash to mainland

CORRECTION Thursday, October 7, 2004 » For the next 10 years, the city expects to generate about 20,000 additional tons of garbage a year than its current annual total of 1.6 million tons. This increase would total 200,000 additional tons over the decade. A Page A3 article on Sept. 25 incorrectly stated the expected growth in Oahu's garbage was 200,000 tons annually for the next 10 years. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at corrections@starbulletin.com.

Two private landfills in Idaho and Washington state are courting the city to send some of Oahu's garbage to them.

Spokesmen for Idaho Waste Systems Inc. of Boise and Pacific Rim Environmental Resources of Seattle will pitch their plans to the City Council's Public Works Committee on Friday .

Oahu solid waste statistics » 1.6 million tons a year generated. » 500,000 tons a year recycled. » 600,000 tons a year burned at HPOWER, reducing it to 168,000 tons of inert ash and residue to bury. » 500,000 tons a year landfilled, of which 200,000 tons a year go to a privately operated construction and demolition landfill. (That leaves 300,000 tons a year of raw garbage buried at Waimanalo Gulch Municipal Landfill.) » Expected growth in garbage generation: 200,000 tons a year during the next 10 years. SOURCE: CITY ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES DIRECTOR FRANK DOYLE

Both companies are proposing to ship compacted bales of shrink-wrapped refuse on otherwise empty barges returning from Hawaii to the mainland.

As city government struggles with siting a new landfill and taking curbside recycling islandwide, alternative ways to deal with garbage continue to be presented to the City Council.

Idaho Waste Systems has a 420-million-ton-capacity landfill 22 miles east of Boise that has plenty of room, said Grant Gauthier, the company's vice president of business development.

Gauthier said he is working on a package that would include transportation from Honolulu to Longview, Wash., then loaded on trains.

Gauthier said yesterday he doesn't know how much transportation costs would be.

Jim Hodge, with Pacific Rim Environmental Resources of Seattle, said he is working on a proposal to accept Oahu garbage at the Roosevelt Regional Landfill in Klickitat County.

Hodge said the landfill, which is in South Central Washington, is about three miles from a Columbia River port. Garbage would be moved the short distance from barges to the landfill by trucks, he said.

The landfill is permitted to accept 235 million tons of garbage, Hodge said.

Oahu produces about 1.6 million tons a year of municipal solid waste. City recycling programs, a private construction and demolition landfill and burning waste for electricity at HPOWER reduces the pile to about 300,000 tons, the amount of raw garbage buried at Waimanalo Gulch Landfill.

The city projects that garbage generation will increase by 200,000 tons a year during the next 10 years.

City administration officials are promoting the expansion of HPOWER. At a cost of $64 million, a third boiler at the Campbell Industrial Park plant would be able to process 120,000 tons more a year of raw garbage.

Carroll Cox of EnviroWatch yesterday objected to the City Council's acceptance of Idaho Waste Systems' $7,000 gift of travel so that three city officials can go to Idaho.

Public Works Chairman Rod Tam, who plans to take the trip, said he thinks seeing the operation is important.