EDITORIAL
Council in confusion on trash and recycling

The City Council needs to step back, take a deep breath and rethink the city's role in garbage collection and recycling.

Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz has it exactly right when he says trash pickup is a core service for which extra fees should not be charged. "We shouldn't be doing government à la carte," he said.

At issue is Mayor Jeremy Harris' proposal to reduce trash pickup to enable the addition of curbside recycling. Harris wants to eliminate one regular rubbish pickup a week and replace it with alternating green-waste and curbside recycling collection.

Residents who want the second trash pickup would have to pay $8 month.

A difficulty is that the latest Harris budget proposal relies heavily on the $8 fees to make it balance, and not just as a user fee to meet cost.

Harris is right to try to reduce the waste stream going to H-Power and the landfill site with a recycling program. Councilman Mike Gabbard is right that Honolulu doesn't have to re-invent the wheel, but should copy successful Mainland recycling programs. Councilwoman Barbara Marshall is right that once-a-week trash pickup may cause health problems.

The obvious answer is to add a quality recycling program to our already quality rubbish pickup service, and meet the additional cost with an increase in property taxes.