CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
On Ainamakua Drive in Mililani Mauka, Steven Goo delivers some green recycling containers to residents taking part in a four-month recycling project.
Mililani looking forward
to recycling projectThe four-month pilot for
curbside pickup begins tomorrow
Curbside recycling will involve a change in habits for the Mililani residents who plan to participate in a new city program starting this week, but many residents are looking forward to the experiment.
Robin and Theresa Echavaria, who live on Paikauhale Street, already have accumulated quite a bit of newspaper and plastics in the 96-gallon green container provided by the city, they said yesterday.
With children, the milk and juice bottles add up.
"I think it's long overdue," Robin Echavaria said of the four-month pilot program that will be tested at 10,000 single family homes in Mililani and Mililani Mauka beginning tomorrow.
If the pilot program is successful, the city will consider expanding curbside recycling to other parts of Oahu.
By Friday, more than 4,000 eligible residents in single-family homes had asked for the free containers to put out recyclables each week in addition to standard twice-a-week rubbish pickup, said Suzanne Jones, city recycling coordinator.
The recyclable pickup will alternate between yard waste one week and mixed recyclables the next, Jones said.
The mixed recyclables include corrugated cardboard, newspaper, glass and plastic. All can be put loose in the green recycling container.
To make the program work, "you've got to get your dates straight," said Dick Poirier, chairman of the Mililani-Waipio Neighborhood Board, which supported being a test community. "You've got to think the thing through and find a place to store the stuff during the interim."
Echavaria said he saw quite a few of the green containers delivered in his neighborhood and expects good participation.
Jones said that people who haven't ordered green containers can ask for them anytime during the four-month pilot. And, she said, people can set out recyclables in their regular, gray trash containers if they bag them to keep them clean.
More information about the program is available at www.opala.org or by calling 692-5410.
Although the city is strongly encouraging people in the pilot areas to participate, it's not mandatory.
That message didn't get across to Jean Maeda, who said yesterday that she'll participate in the program because "we have no choice!"
Maeda and her husband already recycle by taking aluminum cans to a recycling center for a little extra cash. She's not sure yet whether they will keep cashing in the aluminum or start putting it in with the other mixed recyclables.
The city has divided Mililani into three different collection areas. The whole operation for the next four months will be watched, weighed, measured and assessed to see how many households participate, how much stuff they recycle, and what proportions of the mound are newspaper, plastic, glass, aluminum, cardboard or green waste, Jones said.
Green waste will continue to be processed into gardening products by Hawaiian Earth, maker of Menehune Magic mulch.
The other recyclables will be sorted and sold to mainland and Asian markets by Island Recycling.
"We are looking forward to it," Poirier said. Mililani is conducive to the pilot because it already has automated pickup of regular garbage, it's relatively flat and, through the Mililani Town Association, it has a centralized way of getting information out to residents, he said.
"We feel if it doesn't work there, it may not work other places," Poirier said.
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Mililani trash and recycling schedules:
>> Residents in the central area of Mililani town who have Tuesday and Friday trash pickups will have their recyclable material picked up on the first Wednesday of the month, while green waste will be taken on the following Wednesday.This area includes the center of Mililani town, between Kuahelani Avenue and Meheula Parkway and southeast of Kamehameha Highway and Meheula Parkway.
>> Residents in the mauka section of Mililani whose refuse is collected on Mondays and Thursdays will have their recyclable material and green waste collected on alternating Tuesdays.
This area includes Mililani Mauka and the northern end of Mililani, generally north of Kuahelani Avenue.
>> Residents in the southern section of Mililani will continue to have Wednesday and Saturday trash pickups. Recyclable waste and green waste will be picked up on alternating Thursdays.
This area is generally southwest of Kamehameha Highway and Meheula Parkway and includes an area west of there that is south of the Mililani Golf Club and near Mililani Market Place.
