The holiday season in Hawaii means food, gifts and celebrations with family and friends.  For most residents, this means a greater volume of recyclables to sort and trash to dispose of.  Follow these tips to reduce, reuse and recycle in order to minimize the amount of waste this year.

• Eat all your leftovers or cook them into new dishes. Check out our Food Waste Reduction Guide for recipes, tips and tools for using up what’s left.
• Donate quality edibles to Aloha Harvest or Hawaii Food Bankto help those in need.
• Bring reusable containers to take home leftovers instead of using disposable ones.
• Wrap gifts with reusable or recyclable material-like cloth, newspaper or paper bags.
• Bring your own reusable Bags when doing holiday and grocery shopping.
• Send e-cards instead of snail mail.  They’re cheaper, faster and reduce waste!
• Recycle the corrugated cardboard from your boxed gifts.
• Collect and recycle beverage containers from your parties and get some cash back for a special gift for yourself.
• After the season ends, recycle your Christmas trees in your green cart or at a City Convenience Center.  Remove all tinsel and decorations and cut the tree to fit in the cart.

**Remember: No trash or recycling collection and all City drop-off facilities will be closed on Christmas Day, December 25 or on New Year’s Day, January 1.  Visit the the opala.org Holiday Trash Tips page for schedule information and other holiday collection rules.

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Bring your household hazardous waste to the City’s free drop-off event on Saturday, January 5. Appointment required.  Call by December 28th to sign up with a list of your material and the approximate amounts.  768-3201

Hazardous waste generally includes flammable, corrosive, reactive, poisonous or toxic material.  Find out what is considered hazardous and what items can be safely disposed of at home on our opala.org Household Hazardous Waste page.

Next dates for 2019: March 9, May 4, July 6, September 7, November 2.

Sign up now for our “Backyard Composting: Nature’s Recycling” workshop at Pearl City Urban Garden Center on August 11th!  This FREE beginner workshop teaches you how to turn yard trimmings and food scraps into soil enriching compost.  Learn the basics, familiarize yourself with the tools and find out what type of backyard system is best for you through this interactive demonstration.  More workshops to come!

Composting improves soil fertility, texture, structure, aeration, water holding capacity and erosion control.  It also stimulates healthy root development and decreases the volume of our waste stream.

Call now for FREE registration: 453-6050.  For more information visit www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/ougc/

 

    

Take advantage of these upcoming events to drop off your difficult to recycle items like e-waste, batteries, used cooking oil and more.  Find full list of acceptable items and 2018 schedules at Opala.org.

Going Green: 9:00am-1:00pm

August 4 at Leilehua High School

August 10 at Dept. of Accounting & General Services (9:00-11:00, e-waste and batteries only)

August 25 at Puuhale Elementary

September 8 at Pearl City High School

September 15 at Central Union Church

September 22 at Kaimuki High School

Aloha Aina: 9:00am-12:00pm

August 18 at Sunset Beach Elementary

September 8 at University Labratory School

September 22 at Waipahu High School

Connect with us on social media!  As we increase our community engagement, stay tuned for upcoming events as well as useful opala tips, resources and service alerts.

Like and share the Refuse Division’s Facebook page (HNL.Opala) at facebook.com/HNL.Opala/ and follow the Department of Environmental Services on Twitter (@HNL_ENV) at twitter.com/hnl.env.

      

Soon, it’ll become even more important to remember to Bring Your Own (reusable) Bags because you’ll be able to save some money at the checkout counter.  Beginning July 1, 2018, retail stores across Oahu are required to charge a minimum of 15 cents per bag they provide to customers to transport merchandise.  This amendment to the Plastic Bag Ban was signed into law by Mayor Caldwell in July 2017.

For the next year and a half, the types of acceptable bags – Compostable Plastic, Recyclable Paper or Reusable – will remain the same, as will the list of “exempted” uses.  However, come January 1, 2020, plastic film bags thinner than 10 mils and compostable plastic bags will no longer be acceptable.   Ultimately, the goal is to motivate customers to use their own reusable bags when they shop, which should reduce the amount of bags in our waste stream and the potential for them to become littered into the environment.  More information at Opala.org.

Pick up a “Bring Your Own Bag!” sticker as a reminder to pack your reusable shopping bags when heading to the store.  Stickers are available at Foodland and Times stores, Yamashiro’s Building Supply (Ace Hardware) Kaneohe, and coming soon to Don Quijote and Marukai.