O'ahu's only auto recycler threatens to refuse wrecks
By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau
KAPOLEI — Of the thousands of vehicles abandoned on O'ahu each year, most end up at Hawai'i Metal Recycling Co. for disposal, but a dispute with the city over landfill fees could threaten the arrangement and result in more rusted wrecks abandoned on the island's roads or piled in junk yards.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i Metal Recycling shreds the cars and sells the metal for profit, but must pay to dispose of the nonmetal parts of the car — windows, seats, carpeting, moldings — at the city's landfill. That's where the problem comes in.
Hawaii Metal Recycling operations manager Jeff Livingston supervises the crushing of automobiles that are recycled into scrap metal for export to other countries. It is the only company that recycles cars in the state.
Jim Banigan, general manager of Hawai'i Metal Recycling, said those fees make up 37 percent of the company's operating costs, and he wants the city to reduce or eliminate the dumping fees. If nothing can be worked out, the company will stop taking junk cars Sept. 1.
Those familiar with the situation say if car dealers and towing companies have no place to take junk cars, the city could have a major environmental problem on its hands.
"By December, there will be such a backup that you will see cars abandoned all over the roads," said Kimo Pierce, who owns used car lots and is vice president of the National Independent Used Car Dealers Association.
"All the lots for cars the city picks up will be full and they won't be able to get rid of them. I don't think anyone sees the big picture of what can happen here."
Campbell Industrial Park-based Hawai'i Metal Recycling, the only automobile shredding company in the state, sent a memo to its customers July 26 saying it would no longer accept cars or appliances with non-metal parts starting Sept 1.
Dumping fees increase
Banigan said he is negotiating to have the "tip" or dumping fees reduced or eliminated to make his company more profitable. He pays between $500,000 and $600,000 a year in tipping fees and said if the talks fail, HMR will stop accepting cars that have not been cleaned and concentrate on appliances and other sources of metal, such as building materials.
"Tip fees have gone up over the years, and now it has gotten really expensive to tip waste into the landfill," Banigan said. "We are trying to have a win-win for the city and us."
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said negotiations to reduce the tip fees are ongoing, but declined to comment further.
The city's Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill charges $72.25 per ton to drop off rubbish, and taxes and other charges bring that total to about $82 per ton. Recycling companies such as HMR pay a discounted rate of about $36 a ton.
The number of abandoned and derelict vehicles removed by the city has dropped in recent years. Figures show that more than 17,000 vehicles were removed during one 12-month period in the early 1990s. That number decreased to 6,627 cars in 1997. More recent figures were not available.
It's safe to say, though, that as islands, Hawai'i faces a more acute problem with the disposal of abandoned vehicles than other states.
Carl Reber, owner of Surf Motors, has been in the used car business since1958 and can remember when abandoned cars were piled four or five high at an illegal junk yard on Kapa'a Quarry Road in Kailua. The rusting wall of metal was removed in 1986.
National attention
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Kaua'i has received national attention in years past because of the number of wrecked and abandoned cars littering the island. In 1995 the state paid $53,000 to remove 700 abandoned vehicles left on state land by a defunct Kapa'a salvage company. The cars had been collecting on the 16-acre site for 25 years.
A lone survivor at the Hawaii Metal Recycling Co., this Studebaker was destined for the scrap cruncher but was set aside to be restored by some of the company's employees.
Three years later, about 2,000 wrecked and junked cars were shipped to Honolulu for recycling at HMR. Kaua'i County was pressured by the state Department of Health to remove the cars from county lots, and was warned it would be fined if the cars were not moved.
Hawai'i Metal Recycling has reduced to scrap metal about 360,000 old cars in the past 10 years. The company uses a 4,000-horsepower, $8 million shredder that can turn a car to scrap in 30 seconds. The company averages about 100 cars a day. All nonmetals are separated out in the process.
Right now, HMR pays $17 to $20 a ton for old cars and appliances, then sells the metal by the shipload to countries in Asia for about $70 a ton, where it's melted and reused in steel mills. A car with a motor weighs about one ton on average.
A handful of other businesses on O'ahu accept junked cars to salvage the parts, but they are all eventually taken to HMR for shredding.
In the old days, the nonmetal parts weren't taken to a landfill, said Reber. "They used to be able to just burn junk cars," Reber said. "Just set them on fire and burn everything out." But environmental restrictions put a stop to that practice.
Pierce said it would not be feasible for him or other small companies to hire someone to strip the cars, provide storage space, take the excess materials to the dump and properly dispose of the batteries, oil and other fluids in a car.
"HMR is the only act in town. We need competition," Pierce said. "I think maybe the city should look for federal funding to help open another car shredding business."
Abandoned cars
Reber said if the state would only enforce its own laws and fine the last registered owner of an abandoned car for walking away from the vehicle, people would find a legal way to get rid of their old cars. Hawai'i Revised Statues specifies that the registered owner of an abandoned or derelict vehicle left on public property can be fined up to $1,000.
Banigan said only about 30 percent of the cars he handles at HMR come from the city. The majority are from private and mom-and-pop companies that tow directly to HMR and depend on the business to make a living.
Banigan said his business saves the city money by avoiding the cost of dumping more materials into landfills and by not having the bulky cars and appliances take up space. There also is the value of recycling the metal to make sure it gets to the proper outlets rather than leaving it on the streets, and having the residue processed into an easily manageable form for burning, he said.
"Those four components we think add up to at least the tipping fee," he said.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 988-1383.
