Council not sold
on recycling planCity officials say curbside recycling
is attainable by the end of this year
City Council members have questioned whether Mayor Jeremy Harris' plan for islandwide curbside recycling should be approved.
The Council's Budget Committee wants to know if the plan will work and whether it will cost too much money as it puts the final touches on the $1.22 billion operating budget for fiscal 2005.
"I think the Council is very much in favor of recycling and making sure we protect the environment, but I agree, there's so many holes in the program," Council Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz said yesterday. "It's not well thought out, not well presented, that I think it's really prudent to really question and keep asking for a much better plan until we're all comfortable with it."
But Harris administration officials said they are ready to proceed.
"We think it's just environmental common sense to get on with this, to do curbside recycling, and we're ready to go," Managing Director Ben Lee said. "We believe that we can have the entire island on curbside recycling by the end of this year."
The administration plan calls for communities to continue to have two regular trash pickup days per week along with a third day for either yard trimmings or recyclable items. No fee will be charged.
The administration says homes will likely get two more containers -- one for green waste and one for recyclables.
Last year, the administration's first plan to implement islandwide curbside recycling with an $8 monthly garbage pickup fee was trashed by the Council in favor of a pilot program to test on a smaller scale how curbside recycling would work.
"Last year, they said it was going to cost $8 million, and now they're saying $2.7 million and they want more containers," Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said.
In November, Mililani became the test site for a curbside recycling. "I think it's a successful program," Lee said.
But Council members disagreed.
"The Mililani one is not working at all," said Councilman Rod Tam, who heads the Public Works Committee.
Tam suggested a budget provision that prevents the administration from spending any money on curbside recycling until it presents "a full-scale plan."
Councilman Gary Okino said that he is skeptical that there is going to be enough money to fund the program throughout the next fiscal year. He said the administration's track record is to push forward with hastily conceived plans to get a "big splash," but the plans end up with holes.
Lee said that if there is a problem about funding curbside recycling, it is with a proposal by the Council to cut $1.2 million worth of vacant positions from the Department of Environmental Services budget. Part of the amount is for refuse collection positions.
"I think it's going to impact some of that (recycling project)," Lee said. "We would like to work with the Council to see how we can balance the budget (and) put in our curbside recycling."