FREE tour series presented by the City and County of Honolulu

SIGN UP for an exciting bus tour of Oahu’s trashier side. And be quick, seats are limited and the tours will book rapidly following next week’s newspaper ad.

Register by phone: 768-3200.

Click here for more information about this award-winning educational program, now in its 14th year, and to take a virtual tour online.

Choose from the four scheduled tours below. Teachers and non-profits may call for more information on arranging custom tours.

Tour 1: Wastewater Management

Thursday, February 16, 2012,
8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Start-finish: Kapolei Hale

If you’ve wondered what happens to all the stuff you wash down the drain or flush down the toilet, you’ll find the answers here. The day begins with a very cool demonstration by Collection System Maintenance (CSM)that shows first-hand how sewer pipes are serviced and maintained using a robotic closed-circuit TV camera and Vactor truck. Then on tothe Honouliuli Wastewater Treatment Plant, where 25 million gallons per day of sewage are treated through screens, filters and clarifiers which clean and separate liquids from solids. The tour moves over to the Honouliuli Water Reclamation Facility, where the Board of Water Supply further processes the waste “water” portion into clean water, used for irrigation. At the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant you’ll be taken into the central control room where the entire island’s wastewater treatment operations are monitored using a high-tech, computerized SCADA system. Then over to the Synagro Hawaii operations, where the sewage sludge is processed into fertilizer pellets.

Tour 2: Recycling & Waste Processors

Saturday, May 12, 2012,
8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Start-finish: Kapolei Hale

 Tour the H-POWER waste-to-energy plant, which processes over 500,000 tons of Oahu’s waste annually, reducing volume by 90% and generating 7% of our island’s electricity. H-POWER extracts virtually 100% of the metals from the mixed waste for recycling. Take a close look at the environmental protections employed by today’s modern landfill at the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill operated by Waste Management, including complex liner and leachate catchment systems and methane recovery.Hawaiian Earth Products will showcase its grinder, windrow processing and Menehune Magic line of compost products. RRR Recycling Services will show the sort line and processing operations for the curbside mixed recyclables collection and their HI-5 RVM (Reverse Vending Machine) redemption center. 

Tour 3: Recycling & Waste Processors

Thursday, August 9, 2012,
8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Start-finish: Kapolei Hale

 Our most popular tour bears repeating. See description detail for Tour 2. Plus, we add a visit to see mountains of metal at Schnitzer Steel Hawaii, wherecars, refrigerators, and demolition materials are shredded and processed for shipment.

Tour 4: Green Business Recycling

Thursday, November 15, 2012,
8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Start-finish: The Kahala Hotel and Resort

 See the exemplary recycling program, including mixed-materials recycling systems and worm composting at The Kahala Hotel and Resort. Learn about the broad commitment to the 3 R’s at Whole Foods Market. Gyotaku Japanese Restaurantwill show you how they go above and beyond to run an efficient kitchen with the 3R’s, recycling cardboard, food waste and cooking oils, and offering reusable chopsticks. The Hard Rock Café will take you behind the scenes to show how dumpsters were replaced with a comprehensive recycling center for food waste, glass and cardboard. On the loading dock of Honolulu Hale, you’ll also see how the City has set up office paper recycling systems for its administrative buildings. Reservations preference for this tour will be given to Hawaii Green Business Program participants.

Additional Tour Information: Tour participation is free. Space is limited, and reservations will be made on a first-come basis. Please consider your reservation a binding agreement to attend. A no-show is a seat we could have given to another participant. Tour includes round trip site-to-site transportation. Tour does not include lunch or parking expenses. Anticipate $7-$15 for lunch — or you can brown bag it. The bus will stop in a lunch-friendly area. Parking is free at Kapolei Hale and at the Kahala Hotel with validation. Tour schedule times are approximate. Please arrive at the start location 15-20 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Tour sites are subject to change.

The City’s recycling efforts were recognized with two awards this year. Branch Chief, Suzanne Jones, was recently recognized for her environmental leadership by the Keep the Hawaiian Islands Beautiful 2011 Mayor’s Laulima Award, and honored by the Organization of Women Leaders as the (public sector) 2011 Outstanding Woman of the Year. Over the past two decades, Jones and her team have implemented programs and policy that have dramatically increased recycling rates and public awareness. Oahu today recycles five times what it did in 1990 when she first took the helm, and now ranks among the top cities in the country in landfill diversion. Whether you recycle at home, school or work, Jones most likely has played a role in the program or policy development.

Business recycling contributes significantly to Oahu’s overall landfill diversion rate of 72 percent. City ordinance mandates recycling in City and County offices, commercial office buildings with 20,000 square feet or more of office space, bars, restaurants, and other types of businesses. Recycling Branch staff inspect local businesses for compliance and are available to provide assistance in their efforts to “go green.”

The City’s recent food waste inspection of Don Quijote in Waipahu revealed an excellent recycling system which has been in place for years. The retailer was up-to-date and proactive with its food waste recycling. Waipahu Don Quijote employees use a built-in “recycling center” where all meat, seafood, produce and oil wastes are stored in large carts until picked up by a local recycler and transported to piggeries.

Is your business in compliance? Do you have recyclers for your food waste, glass and paper? Do you need help starting or improving your program? Visit our Business Recycling webpage for more information.

Eighty Oahu educators and student leaders participated in the 7th annual Discover Recycling event, which featured a guided tour of key Oahu recycling and solid waste disposal facilities, a “Zero Waste to Landfill” lunch, and education about implementing recycling programs on campus. By participating in this event, teachers gain an informed perspective about how Oahu’s waste is managed which helps them teach about recycling in the classroom, and they learn about the various resources, from collection containers to recycling education grants, that the City offers to schools for on-campus recycling programs.

Participants commented:
“It was awesome, such a great learning experience. Even though we hear about it, [being able to] see it, smell it, [and] walk around it was amazing.”

“I really enjoyed the tour and found the presentations very informative. I really appreciate the free event and the resources provided. I would suggest this event to other educators.”

Even if you missed this year’s event, you can find recycling resources for your school online at www.opala.org in the Learning Center. The City offers two activity books for classroom or take-home. “The Opala IQ Book” (5th grade and up) and “Where Do Things Go? Coloring Activity Book” (K-3) are available for viewing and download. You may also request and pick up printed quantities from our office. 

Keep tuned to WasteLine for news on next year’s event, tentatively scheduled for September 29, 2012. Click here to learn more and view photographs of the event.

The City’s Curbside Recycling Program captured roughly half of targeted recyclables, according to a recently released evaluation of the program. For a new program, the current capture rate of 52 percent is both encouraging and suggestive of room for improvement. Based on mature programs in other cities, the City is targeting a 75 percent capture rate for mixed recyclables.

“Honolulu is already among the top cities in the country for landfill diversion rates, ranked fourth in the nation,” says Tim Steinberger, director of the City ENV. “Improving the curbside recycling program’s effectiveness can help to further these efforts, and as an island community, we can and need to do more.”

The curbside recycling program began in November 2007 with pilot programs in Mililani and Hawaii Kai and completed islandwide implementation in May 2010. The program’s effectiveness was evaluated after a year of islandwide operation. The full report is posted online at www.opala.org in the Resource Library, Technical Studies.

Oahu households (160,000) sort waste into three carts – blue for mixed recyclables, green for green waste, gray for refuse. Each material type is processed in a separate facility. Mixed recyclables are sorted at the materials recycling facility, packed and shipped to markets for remanufacture into new products. Green waste is processed into soil amendment products at a composting facility. Refuse is incinerated at the H-POWER waste-to-energy facility for energy production.

In the last year, the curbside collection system recovered and recycled more than 71,000 tons (53,000 tons of green waste and 18,000 tons of mixed recyclables). Oahu’s curbside recycling contributes a full six percent to the overall reduction of municipal solid waste going to the landfill. While these rates are notable, the study found that households put significant amounts of mixed recyclables in the gray refuse carts.

The curbside recycling program has a green waste capture rate of 77 percent-”Impressively high,” Steinberger said. The City seeks to move the needle higher for the mixed recyclables by “increasing capture rates for the mixed recyclables from 52 percent to 75 percent, matching other well-developed mainland programs,” he added.

Mature programs in other cities achieving capture rates of roughly 75 percent for these mixed recyclables are considered to be among the nation’s greenest communities.

The study measured how much recyclable material is being collected curbside, but has yet to probe into specific household behaviors related to participation. This key variable will be assessed through market research (scientfic polling of Oahu residents) in the next phase of the evaluation process. The results will provide insight for affecting behavioral changes to increase participation, recycling rates, and net revenue to the City. At a 52 percent capture rate, the blue cart mixed recyclables generated a net revenue of $1.5 million in fiscal year 2011. At a 75 percent capture rate, the mixed recyclables would return $2 million to the City, further offsetting costs to operate the program.

To read the full report, click here.
For more details about Oahu’s recycling and landfill diversion rates, click here.

The 7th annual Discover Recycling Event for Teachers will be held on Saturday, September 24th at Kapolei Hale, 8am-3pm. This fun and educational event invites teachers to learn more about the in’s and out’s of recycling on Oahu and how to access recycling project resources available for your schools.

Get on the bus! The day begins with a “Tour de Trash” of the island’s recycling processing facilities to see first-hand what happens to our trash and recycling after it is picked up from homes and businesses. Enjoy a Waste-Free lunch followed by presentations by educators offering classroom teaching tools, activity books, equipment and assistance to help you implement recycling projects at your school.

Student leaders are also welcome, accompanied by their teachers. However, preference will be given to educators and teachers if seats fill.

For more details: Discover Recycling.
Learning Center 

Register Now! Space is limited. 
Tamara Farnsworth tfarnsworth@honolulu.gov or 768-3448