FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Sara Lum showed off the clean aluminum cans she used to reclaim 5-cent deposits Saturday in Kailua. Recycling Services Hawaii was given permission on a trial basis to park a mobile redemption truck in the parking lot of Daiei, which is the first major retail chain to accommodate the project.

Getting on the recycling
bandwagon

Returning bottles provides
many families with walking-
around money

Kailua residents with bags of empty bottles and cans beat a steady path over the weekend to two redemption centers in the community, including one that had gone unnoticed by the public.

"I didn't really know it was here, but I passed by it this morning," Nadine Stollenmaier said of the mobile RRR Recycling truck parked at the Daiei store parking lot on Hahani Street.

When she saw the brightly painted truck advertising redemption, Stollenmaier went home to get her three children and her mother and the beverage containers they'd been saving.

"I said, 'We're going to get the money and go buy lunch,'" Stollenmaier said.

After about 20 minutes of sticking aluminum cans and plastic bottles into Envipco reverse vending machines, the family received $21.60. Stollenmaier split the take three ways among her children: Joshua, 12; Rachel, 9; and Shannon, 23.

"Now I bet you'll save the cans," Stollenmaier's mother, Anita Sotelo, said to her grandchildren as they debated where to go eat.

Stollenmaier said she's been a recent convert to the merits of Hawaii's Deposit Beverage Container Law, which charges a 5-cent refundable deposit and a 1-cent handling fee for every qualified beverage container holding 64 ounces or less. Exempt containers include milk, straight hard liquor and wine. Mixed beverages qualify.

"At first I thought it was a way to make money for the state," she said about the program, which only began reimbursing consumers Jan. 2. And reports of some people standing in line for an hour to cash in their empties last week was a turn-off, she said.

But her experience yesterday improved her outlook. "I think it's a great environmental learning experience for them," Stollenmaier said, pointing to her younger children as they competed to see who could feed the most containers into the machines.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM John Limpahan, assisted by Recycling Services Hawaii employee Sonja Tupua, had his cans weighed for redemption Saturday in Kailua. The Recycling truck in the Daiei parking lot took in more than 9,000 containers Saturday, the company said.

There were times yesterday when the RRR Recycling truck -- a renovated soda delivery truck -- didn't have any customers. But its operators weren't surprised, since they'd only completed the agreement with Daiei to locate there late Friday.

"It'll get bigger and bigger as more people become informed," said employee Glenn MacDonald.

The RRR Recycling truck took in more than 9,000 containers Saturday and paid more than $450, company owner Dominic Henriques said.

Daiei is the first major retail chain to allow customers to reclaim their 5-cent deposit on store property.

"We allowed them to set up for a trial period, about a month," said Herb Gushikuma, general manager for Daiei USA Inc., who called the mobile redemption center "quite interesting."

The store allows the recycler to park there at no charge, Henriques said.

Meanwhile, just a few minutes away at the Enchanted Lake Reynolds Recycling location, lone employee Derek Donaldson said things have been so busy since the storefront center opened Tuesday that he hasn't had time to put up a sign identifying it.

"On the first day we had beer bottles out to here," Donaldson said, indicating half of the 600-square-foot store, which doesn't have reverse vending machines in it.

Reynolds customer Stanford Mook, 13, has been back three times already, cashing in containers his grandmother collects at beach parks. He's raised more than $100 this week, which he said will go toward helping his family pay for a new home.

Mook's mother, Maelynn Mook, said she thinks that the bottle bill will help keep Hawaii cleaner.

Wearing work gloves, Malia Souza and a friend were getting into the rhythm of feeding cans into the Tomra reverse vending machines that Reynolds uses.

"We got 700 containers in a half-hour for $35," Souza said at the Enchanted Lake center. "We're going through trash cans at the beach. We're asking our friends for cans."

Where to find redemption

In the week since the Hawaii Beverage Container Deposit Law took effect, Oahu added four sites. They are:

» Enchanted Lake, 1090 Keolu Drive C-7, between the satellite city hall and post office, Tuesday-Saturday 9 a.m.-6 p.m., closed for lunch noon-1 p.m.

» Kalihi, 207 Puuhale Road, Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

» Hickam Air Force Base, Building 1715, Kuntz Ave., Tuesday-Friday 2-6 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m.-noon; for Air Force Exchange members only.

» Waimanalo Hawaiian Homes Association, 41-853 Kalanianaole Highway, Thursdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m., closed noon-1 p.m.

RRR Recycling also is offering redemption via its truck equipped with reverse vending machines:

» Kaneohe, next to the Jack-in-the-Box restaurant, 45-950 Kamehameha Highway, Sundays 8 a.m.-noon.

» Kailua, parking lot of the Daiei store, 345 Hahani St., Mondays and Saturdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m., on a trial basis for one month.

On Molokai, plans for once-a-month redemption on the island's east and west ends is planned, in addition to a six-days-a-week facility in Naiwa. The Big Island also is offering redemption at many sites for just part of a day, one day a week or month.

More information and updated redemption center locations are available by calling Aloha United Way at 211 or visiting www.hi5deposit.com.

Recycle for tsunami victims

The Sierra Club is sponsoring a fund-raiser for Asian tsunami victims next weekend by way of donating beverage containers marked with the new HI-5 deposit symbol. All of the nickel deposits from the bottles and cans collected at sites listed below will go toward supporting tsunami aid efforts, a release from the Sierra Club said. Unmarked cans will not be accepted. Reynolds Recycling is providing shipping containers to collect the bottles and cans.

The fund-raiser will be held 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at these locations:

» Manoa Marketplace, Woodlawn Drive entrance

» Kapiolani Community College, corner of 18th and Kilauea avenues

» Victoria Ward Center, corner of Ward Avenue and Auahi Street

For more information, see www.bottlebillhawaii.org or call 538-6616.