City might get paid
for recyclable material

A company offers $150,000
a year for the recycables
from curbside collections

The city may pay a company to process recyclable materials it picks up in its curbside recycling program or it may get paid to provide the material to a different company.

The options were revealed in bids opened last week.

According to the bids posted on the city's Purchasing Department Web page:

The earliest curbside recycling could start would be July — and that would be for Mililani only, which already has been through a pilot program, Takamura said. Other areas of the island would need at least two months of education to prepare residents for the program, he said.

The city has been trying for several years to get a curbside recycling program in place, but has suffered repeated setbacks, including contract disputes with the United Public Workers union, which represents city garbage collectors. The UPW contract issue is resolved, Takamura said.

Island Recycling was the apparent low bidder to process recyclables last year at a cost of $1.1 million a year.

But that bid was never accepted by the city because of questions about the company's compliance with permit requirements at its former location and doubt that it could be ready at its new facility in time to handle the job.