Recycling trees puts company in the green
| • | Sorting out mulch, compost |
| • | Where to recycle |
By Katherine Nichols
Advertiser Staff Writer
Seven men formed an assembly line around a conveyor belt under a shelter in the sweltering heat of Campbell Industrial Park.
Or, check the sticker on your automated refuse collection bin for curbside green-waste pickup schedule. For details, call 527-5335 or www.opala.org
Occasionally bobbing their heads and doing a spin, the Hawaiian Earth Products employees let a boom box provide diversion from the job they do eight hours a day: tear off plastic bags and pull household garbage from recyclable green waste.
•
Recycle your Christmas tree at TreeCycling centers statewide Saturday, or at green-waste recycling convenience centers.
The annual push to recycle Christmas trees tends to raise awareness about green-waste recycling, but the process is complicated, said John Lee, acting chief of refuse for the city and county.
Curbside pickup of green waste — tree trimmings, cut grass and leaves — is available to 130,000 O'ahu residents twice a month. Complicating what could be a simple process are the people who put out trees with stands, lights or tinsel still attached, said Lorra Naholowa'a, manager of Hawaiian Earth Products.
The company recycles green waste to produce mulch and compost. And as with plastic bags, holiday decorations must be removed by hand before that can happen.
"The plastic is a real problem," said Naholowa'a. Picking it out "is not easy work."
Of its 31 employees, Hawaiian Earth Products devotes seven full-time and four part-time to separate plastic from green waste.
Naholowa'a said the company is researching plastic bags that break down in the composting process, but the best results have come from a bag made in Pakistan. "So that's been put on hold, to say the least," she said.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
Two green-waste recycling businesses on O'ahu have contracts with the city, Lee said. Kalaheo Greenwaste Recycling Facility takes green waste from the Windward side, while green waste on the Leeward side gets sent to Hawaiian Earth Products.
Jeremiah Pule walks from a large pile of Christmas trees ready to be mulched at Hawaiian Earth Products. The company says the toughest part of recycling green waste is pulling off plastic, tinsel, tree stands and other nonrecyclable materials.
In business for nearly 10 years, HEP is the largest green-waste recycling company in the state. It is owned by five partners: Steve Nimz, Steve Swift, Alan and Annabel Gottlieb and Jim Wriston. They started in 1992 with two employees and five acres, taking in about 200 tons of green waste per month. Now they process about 2,500 tons per month on a 35-acre site. From rented equipment, they now have about $2 million worth of gear.
"The future looks bright," said Alan Gottlieb. " ... We're continually looking to recycle more types of things." Their latest venture involves recycling construction waste and treated lumber.
Business remained relatively flat from 1992 to 1998, he said. Composting the fields of Central O'ahu Park kindled a dramatic rise in 1999, when sales climbed 50 percent to $550,000.
In 2000, that rose to $1.1 million. And 2001 is on track with what Gottlieb called "consistently good, midsize business," that includes "a lot of small homeowners who come and pick up a yard in the back of their pickup truck."
The company saw a dramatic lull for two weeks after Sept. 11, but sales recovered shortly after. While other companies brace for an economic downturn next year, Naholowa'a said, "we don't foresee it, at least not in the first quarter."
October was another record-breaking month, Gottlieb said, and January usually is strong as the TreeCycling business kicks in.
City support has helped the environment as well as HEP. Green waste is banned from landfills, so commercial tree trimmers must pay $40 per ton to dispose of it at the recycling centers.
In the 1999 fiscal year, the city directed about 10,000 tons of green waste to its two contractors. In 2000 that rose to 16,500 tons, and is expected to have nearly doubled to 32,000 in 2001.
Banning green waste from landfills caused a booming Christmas tree business about five years ago, when HEP received 20 to 30 Matson shipping containers filled with trees that never made it to market. Refrigeration problems had ruined the trees, leaving mountains of recycling even before Christmas.
That has slowed significantly, Naholowa'a said. Only one or two 40-foot containers arrived before Christmas this year. Last year after the holidays, HEP processed about 9 tons of Christmas trees — a figure it hopes to beat this year.
