City officials looking into alternative waste solutions

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

With Honolulu expected to run out of room to dispose of its trash this year, and plans to expand a Leeward O'ahu landfill strongly opposed by area residents, city officials are moving ahead to develop alternative ways to dispose of the island's solid waste.

Bulldozers pile trash at the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill in Kahe Valley. The landfill is expected to reach capacity this year, so the city is studying technologies to reduce what comes in by 75 percent. Advertiser library photo • Sept. 17, 1997

The goal is to reduce, and one day to eliminate, the trash destined for Waimanalo Gulch. About 450,000 tons of refuse go to the Leeward landfill each year, including solid waste, ash residue from the H-Power garbage-to-energy plant and sludge from city wastewater treatment plants. City officials believe that can be reduced by more than 75 percent with alternative disposal and by increasing capacity at the H-power plant.

The technology to be studied is used across the country and in Europe to dispose of medical and toxic waste, but city officials said Hawai'i would be the first to explore whether it can be used on a large scale for solid-waste disposal. Among the methods being studied:

• Plasma arc, an electrical energy process that reduces waste to little more than gases.
• Anaerobic digestion, which decomposes organic material without using oxygen, to create methane gas for various fuels.
• Hydromex, which would recycle treated lumber and car parts and mix them with polymers to create a wood-like product that could be used for building materials.

Landfill issue remains

Some community leaders applaud the city's effort to study alternative waste disposal, but say it could have been made sooner and does not address the future of the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill, which is expected to reach capacity this year.

"I think the city is headed in the right direction with this technology, but it's not the answer for right now or the next three, four years, because these pilot projects are done on a smaller scale," said Cynthia Rezentes, chairwoman of the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board. "The bottom line, however, is the city hasn't gotten back to us on what's going to happen to the landfill at the end of the year. My worry is they're just stalling on their decision on keeping the landfill open."

City officials responded that a decision on landfill expansion probably would come in late summer. It seems evident, however, that use of the landfill will have to be extended while alternatives are developed.

Decision delayed

The city last week extended its public comment period until April 19 on a proposal to expand the landfill — the sixth time the deadline has been extended. The city wants to expand the landfill by 60.5 acres and continue using the site until 2017. Both the Wai'anae Coast and Makakilo-Kapolei neighborhood boards have recommended the city find landfill sites other than on the Leeward Coast, or find alternative technologies to recycle garbage rather then burying it.

George Yamamoto, chairman of the Makakilo-Kapolei-Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board, said the board has recommended that the city keep the landfill open for two to three more years until a new site is found. But "expanding the landfill would affect the development of the (Ko Olina) resort, and that indirectly affects jobs and the local economy," Yamamoto said.

The city is considering three vacant parcels at Campbell Industrial Park totalling about 22 acres next to the city's existing H-Power plant as a demonstration site for companies specializing in alternative solid-waste disposal technologies.

The city has budgeted $8 million so far for land acquisition under Mayor Jeremy Harris' executive budget for fiscal year 2003. Campbell Estate owns the properties, and a deal has yet to be negotiated.

Frank Doyle, deputy director at the city's Department of Environmental Services, said the contractor would build its own waste disposal facilities at the site. Doyle hopes the plan can cut to 100,000 tons the amount of trash taken to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill, by means of alternative disposal and increasing the capacity at the H-Power plant by 50 percent by 2004 or 2005.

"Expanding H-Power alone would cut down the annual amount of landfill refuse by 200,000 tons," Doyle said.

The city has budgeted only $6 million for planning and design for the H-Power expansion, with $60 million more still needed for construction.

Another dilemma involves what happens after H-Power incinerates the trash: 200 tons of ash residue from the process still need to be taken daily to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill.

One interested company, the Honolulu-based Asia-Pacific Environmental Technology Inc., said it has a solution for that as well as for the rest of O'ahu's waste. The company would use the plasma arc technology it already uses at Campbell Industrial Park to destroy medical waste from one-third of Hawai'i's medical facilities.

"It really almost is like capturing lightning in a bottle," said company president Samuel Y.K. Liu, who said the heat from the electrical energy process — which can reach 15,000 degrees — breaks items down to their basic components, hydrogen and inert material. Liu said the process also can convert the H-Power ash into crystallized glass lava, called "glassphalt." for road resurfacing.

"It adds some grip to slick roads," said Liu, adding that the glass-like material also can be used at shipyards for sandblasting ship bottoms of barnacles and old paint. His company would like to build a 50-ton-a-day conversion plant, Liu said, with the ability to expand capacity over the next three years.

Recycling considered

Another Hawai'i-based company, The Environmental Group, is proposing recycling treated lumber and car parts such as dashboards, padding and electrical wiring that would have gone straight to the dump.

In a process called Hydromex, the materials, plus ash from the H-Power plant, would be chopped and mixed with polymers to create a wood-like product, said Environmental Group president Larry Leaf.

"You could use this product for building materials such as flooring, retaining walls, fencing. They're even testing it out as railroad cross-ties because it's safe for the environment."

Doyle said a Canadian environmental company has approached the city on an "anaerobic digestion" process that decomposes organic material, without oxygen, to create methane gas for fuels. That process also would convert sludge from the area wastewater plant to compost, Doyle said.

Other firms and technologies also are being studied.

Question is when

Doyle estimates it would take six to eight months to select the contractors, and another year and a half before their facilities are operational.

"If we find the operations a success, then expansion of the facilities would be the next step," he said.

Still, others wonder if and when the technology will make a significant dent in the landfill demand.

Ralph Harris, president of Ko Olina Fairways Association of Apartment Owners, believes community pressure finally got the city to look at alternative means of waste disposal, but the city still lacks a long-range plan to deal with the refuse situation.

"It's only recently (the city) explored this new technology with any earnest effort," Harris said. "It's just frustrating, because if they had a comprehensive plan, H-Power would have been expanded a long time ago."

Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.