Maui trash collection to become automated
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — Some 3,800 homes and businesses in Kahului will begin receiving automated trash collection next year under an agreement signed yesterday by Maui County and the United Public Workers union.
County officials said they want to phase in automated refuse routes to 75 percent of the island of Maui over five years, a move that would lead to additional services such as curbside recycling and green-waste collection.
Any expansion of the program will require additional agreements with the union.
Starting July 1, 2002, trash will be collected in Kahului much like it is on O'ahu and Lana'i, where a driver operates a truck with an automated arm that picks up 96-gallon rubbish containers.
No jobs will be lost. While six employees handle the Kahului route, only one employee will be needed under the new system. The other five workers will be transferred to routes where positions are now being filled by other public works employees borrowed from the county Highways Division.
Maui County Council Chairman Patrick Kawano predicted the council will back the program.
"We keep talking about recycling, but we never did a damn thing about it," he said. "So this is something we can fully support.''
David Goode, the county's director of Public Works and Waste Management, said each automated refuse truck will cost about $200,000. Also 4,500 96-gallon containers, or "refuse carts'' with wheels, which cost about $375,000, will be given to customers. The monthly fee of $6 will not change, officials said. Operators of the automated trucks will get a raise of $1 to $2 an hour.
Former Mayor Linda Lingle, now head of the Republican Party in Hawai'i, attempted to privatize curbside recycling service in 1996 but was thwarted by the UPW and the Hawai'i Supreme Court.
UPW chief Gary Rodrigues yesterday said he opposed Lingle's plan because she was trying to take jobs away from union members. But he said he was willing to talk to her successor, Mayor James "Kimo'' Apana, about automation.
