Question: Would you please advise when the new Hawaii quarter will be available to the public?

Answer: The Hawaii quarter - the last of 50 issued by the United States Mint to commemorate the 50 states - will be put into general circulation on Nov. 3.

They will be distributed by the Federal Reserve through financial institutions just as regular coins, according to the Mint. About two to three weeks after their release, you can expect to start receiving the quarter as change in stores and such.

Mint officials say local availability will vary according to the demand of individual banks and institutions, but there should be more than enough to go around.

The Mint expects to produce about 520 million of the quarters, which depict King Kamehameha, the eight major Hawaiian Islands and the state motto, Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono (The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness).

If you can't wait to get them by chance, you can purchase them, for a premium, online from the U.S. Mint. A quarter bag, containing 100 quarters, or a two-roll set, with each roll holding 40 quarters, will sell for $32.95.

See http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/?action+50_state_quarters_program for more information.

The quarters were issued, beginning in 1999, according to the date each state was admitted into the Union. Delaware was the first, becoming a state on Dec. 17, 1787; Hawaii, the last, on Aug. 21, 1959.

Q: In Kailua, we've been using the blue bins for green waste for a couple of years now, per the city. On days when we had too much green waste for the blue bin we were allowed to put the overflow into our gray refuse bin, and the truck would pick up both. Beginning in November, we have to use green bins for green waste. The city says we can have more green bins if we prove need. Why make us add more bins instead of allowing residents who occasionally have a lot of green waste to use bins they already have?

A: Besides wanting to encourage residents to recycle, the city wants to keep the bins separate to prevent cross contamination.

“;The pilot programs in Mililani and Hawaii Kai demonstrated that a color-coded, three-cart system garnered high participation, high recovery rates and minimized contamination,”; said Markus Owens, spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Services.

Windward and North Shore residents were allowed to use their gray carts for excess green waste when needed, but that practice proved risky: Workers noticed a high contamination rate when carts were used interchangeably, he said.

Color coding and separate bins also leave nothing to chance, he said.

For example, if a resident left a gray cart out along with the green cart, the refuse driver - who does not check the contents of each cart - may pick up both and end up dumping garbage in with the green waste, Owens said.

If garbage and green waste are mixed, the garbage could contaminate the green waste, which is taken directly to the compost recycler, he said.