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By Anthony Sommer, Star-Bulletin
A new $2.3-million recycling facility sits unused because
Kauai County can't find a private contractor to operate it. The
situation also has stalled hoped-for jobs. Above, acres of
discarded appliances pile up just a few yards from the center.

The resurrection
center has become
a graveyard

Appliances rust away while
the Garden Isle tries to persuade
someone to turn junk
into money

By Anthony Sommer
Star-Bulletin

LIHUE -- A $2.3 million recycling center funded by the U.S. Commerce Department to rebuild and resell broken appliances littering the Garden Isle has failed to attract a single contractor willing to operate it.

Instead of giving new life to old appliances, the Kauai Resource Exchange Buy Back Center sits empty in a remote industrial area past the end of the main runway at Lihue Airport. Three brand-new buildings, totaling almost 15,000 square feet -- complete with room for workshops and retail sales, a loading dock, a paved parking lot and a new forklift -- are locked up behind a shiny new chain-link fence.

The center was built next door to the county's Lihue Transfer Station, the official bone yard for every broken-down washer, dryer, stove, refrigerator and outboard motor on the island.

By Anthony Sommer, Star-Bulletin
The center's situation has stalled hoped-for jobs.

As are Kauai's junk cars, major appliances are prohibited in the county landfill. The county has had no way to dispose of them since the last private salvage yard closed five years ago. Maytags and Whirlpools were running a close second to Fords and Toyotas as pollution sources along the Garden Isle's highways.

The county ultimately built its own scrap yard to take care of the derelict autos. The buy-back center was supposed to be the companion solution for major appliances.

The theory was that a private company would pay the county for a five-year contract to operate the facility. The contractor would then rent space to small repair businesses that would take old stoves, television sets and spare parts from the huge (and free) selection right next door, rebuild them, and then sell them to the public at low prices. A major bonus would be the added employment the facility would provide.

By Anthony Sommer, Star-Bulletin
This new $2.3-million recycling facility sits unused because
Kauai County can't find a private contractor to operate it.

Both the U.S. Commerce Department and Kauai County were so sure they had a winner that they put up a billboard in front of the facility with the word "JOBS" in large red letters. At the bottom the sign reads: "Brought to you by Mayor Maryanne Kusaka."

They built it, but no one came.

Last year, county officials conducted two bidders' conferences. Not a single would-be operator stepped forward.

Last week, county officials met in Seattle with what they concede are increasingly impatient federal bureaucrats to see how much wiggle room there is in their agreement. They are hoping to find acceptable bait to lure an operator.

On Thursday, when another bidders' conference is scheduled, Kauai Economic Development Director Gini Kapali hopes to offer more attractive terms to prospective contractors.

"I think the requirement for a five-year commitment scared a lot of companies off," she said. "And it may be that we will have to become the landlord and rent pieces of the complex to small entrepreneurs. We were trying to give that role to a private company but we may have to do it ourselves for a year or so.

"I believe the commitment to recycling is out there and we just have to tap into it to make this work. I believe we ultimately will use the facility for its original purpose," Kapali said. "I really do."