Condo recycling programs lag behind rest of country

• City's recycling office offers tips on starting program in your condo

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Makiki resident Carol Wakayama looks a little strange as she begins her twice-a-week jogs.

Nauru Tower resident manager Duane Komine says that the building's recycling program has cut the number of trash pickups in half, thereby saving money. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Wakayama is a dedicated recycler who moved to Hawai'i two years ago from San Francisco, where condominium recycling is mandatory. But the 62-unit Makakilanai Plaza building on Thurston Avenue where she lives does not provide recycling services.

"I cannot toss things that could be recycled down the chute," Wakayama said. "I absolutely refuse."

Wakayama is not alone. Plenty of new residents — and even tourists — who have come to make recycling a habit elsewhere find it's a missing component in many of Hawai'i's condominiums.

Despite recent gains in recycling in Hawai'i, the state's condominium and apartment buildings are a widely untapped source for recyclables, capable of diverting thousands of tons of solid waste from landfills.

No one seems to know exactly how widespread recycling at multifamily buildings is here, although recycling, in general, is gaining momentum. The City and County of Honolulu is moving to start islandwide curbside recycling, and the state's bottle bill is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1.

Many condos run their own recycling programs, while others hire companies to haul away their recyclables. But O'ahu's top recyclers and collectors say condos are only a small part of their business, and many in the industry here believe recycling at multifamily buildings lags behind other recycling sectors.

Hawai'i has 1,479 condominium complexes with six or more units, representing a total of 135,388 units, according to the Hawai'i Real Estate Commission. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that a single multifamily household produces an average of 280 pounds of recyclable material per year. That amounts to a potential of nearly 19,000 tons of rubbish that could be diverted from Hawai'i's waste stream annually.

Follow-through tough

Karen Shinmoto of Island Recycling, the state's largest multicommodity recycling company, said recycling by multifamily buildings is only a small portion of the company's business, in part because the fees are a turn off.

"We get a lot of calls, but it usually turns out we can't do it," Shinmoto said. The service either costs too much, she said, or there isn't enough consensus from residents.

Carmen Kinsey, West Hawai'i coordinator for the Big Island's Recycle Hawai'i, said she gets inquiries from condo residents who would like to start programs, but doesn't know of any who followed through.

Residents generally aren't thrilled with the prospect of regularly hauling cans, bottles and newspapers to a processing center, she said.

"I think people are willing to do the right thing if it's easy for them to do," Kinsey said. "You get interest and when they realize it's not going to be easy, their interest fades."

Done right, recycling programs can save condos money on their trash bills. But getting the ball rolling can be tricky. It takes a lot of coordination, education and agreement among unit owners. Another obstacle is that many individual units and buildings lack space for recycling containers.

It often comes down to a personal commitment from the resident manager or a strong member of the condo board, said Hana Steel, Maui County recycling coordinator.

With 42 floors and 304 units, the Nauru Tower in Honolulu has reached new heights in recycling.

On every floor, residents can easily use recycling baskets located in the same room as the rubbish chute and service elevator.

Employees collect the recyclables every day and take them to the building's ground-floor recycling center, where more than a dozen 52-gallon bins are labeled for glass, aluminum and newspapers. There is also a large bin for cardboard, a box for donating used clothes and a shelf to place used books and magazines for recirculation.

"It's a big recycling plant down here," said Duane Komine, residential manager of Nauru Tower. Komine helped create a condominium recycling demonstration project for the city when he managed the Royal Capitol Plaza 15 years ago. When he moved to Nauru Tower in 1992, he brought his recycling knowledge with him.

"It's common sense," Komine said. "Our island is so small, there is no place to put all the rubbish."

Komine said since starting the program, it has cut the amount of trash pickups in half, which saves money. But the savings are offset by labor costs, recycling company fees and the cost of renting the bins, which means the program at best only breaks even.

Access key

Nauru Tower resident manager Duane Komine helped set up a recycling center in the building's basement when he took over in 1992. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"Recycling is not mandatory, but it works here," Komine said. "We hope that everybody recycles, and our trash containers attest to that. We have not increased the number of trash pickups here since 1992."

On Kaua'i, the 144-unit Sun Village retirement complex recycles cardboard, newspaper, plastic, aluminum and glass, and hires Garden Isle Disposal to haul the materials away every other week.

Recycling containers are available on each floor, and maintenance workers empty the containers into Garden Isle Disposal bins.

Company sales manager Steve Kaui said the firm handles Sun Village's regular trash and its recyclables, and the fee structure is comparable or perhaps a little cheaper than a trash-only contract.

The 280 townhomes that make up the Fairways at Ko Olina Resort, between Kapolei and Nanakuli, have 19 enclosed trash areas — 10 of which contain a pair of green 50-gallon containers for recycling paper and aluminum cans.

There is no extra cost to the residents for recycling, said Fairways resident manager Marjorie Collier.

Collier said the trash areas are too small to accommodate recycled materials other than cans and paper, but the Ko Olina Community Association office complex across the road has a container that takes glass, plastic and cardboard.

The association's grounds director, Jack Morgan, said his office tries to assist residents with anything that can be recycled. He also said the recycling effort is expanding. For example, each of the resort's four lagoons now has containers for both regular trash and materials that can be recycled.

Despite these efforts, some residents either don't know about the recycling bins or don't use them.

"Do I use the recycle bins?" Fairways resident Joyce Edwards asked rhetorically. "No. Do I feel guilty about it? Yes. Every time I roll up my newspaper I think I should put it in the recycle bin."

Edwards said she was unaware of the large Recycle Hawai'i container at the community association complex.

Other residents are enthusiastic about the Fairways recycling program.

"We're 100 percent in favor of recycling anything recyclable," said Tony Davidson, who lives up the street from Edwards. "We're committed to it. In fact, we came from a place in New Jersey where recycling is mandatory."

Davidson and his wife, who are retired, are both old enough to remember a time, during World War II, when recycling was considered a patriotic duty.

"I was only 5, but I still remember it," said Joan Davidson as she opened a cabinet and withdrew her "War Ration Book" from that era.

" 'Use it up, wear it out, make it do,' " the Davidsons recited in unison, repeating a slogan that appeared on the wall of virtually every post office during the 1940s.

Maui takes the lead

At the Makaha Shores, a six-story, 88-condominium building that sits squarely between the mountains and Makaha beach, manager Dick Estabrooke has a simple, free recycling program: Next to the dumpster on the ground level sits a 50-gallon garbage container for paper and another one for aluminum cans.

He says the system has been in place during the entire 11 years he has managed the building.

"We have a lady who comes and picks up the papers, and another lady who comes and picks up the cans," he said.

On the Big Island, relatively few complexes seem to recycle, said Mike Allen, owner of Atlas Recycling Centers. Allen is working on a project to provide collection service for 13 condominium complexes in the Keauhou area, but said initially he expects the value of the recyclable materials to just cover the cost of the pickup service.

"We've done different programs over the years," he said. "A lot of them have ended up falling on their face because people just don't have the commitment to it."

Donna Smith, a resident of the 440-unit Kama'ole Sands in Kihei, Maui, said her building stopped its recycling program five years ago.

"We don't really have the place for the receptacles. Part of the problem is the parking spots are deeded to the individual units," she said, and there's no space for handling recyclables.

Even though there is no recycling program, Smith said it's common to see tourists separating their recyclable rubbish and leaving it out by the trash bins.

The Kama'ole Sands notwithstanding, Marilyn Chapman, sales manager of Maui Disposal Co., said Maui leads the state in condo recycling, with at least 50 percent of larger complexes having programs serviced by a contracted recycler.

Maui Disposal, which offers green waste, cardboard, glass, plastics, aluminum and mixed paper recycling, services 96 condos, hauling off a couple hundred tons of recyclables a month, she said.

Chapman said much of the recycling by condos on Maui is driven by tourists who demand it. She said they come from areas such as Japan, Canada and California, where recycling is convenient, and they expect to do it here.

"These people are outraged when they find out how much is thrown away by people who live on an island," she said.

Honolulu recycling coordinator Suzanne Jones predicted that condo recycling will pick up on all the islands after the state's bottle bill goes into effect Jan. 1. The nickel deposit will make all kinds of recycling more economical, she said.

"It will change the landscape for them," she said of the condos.

Staff writers Kevin Dayton, James Gonser, Will Hoover and Jan TenBruggencate contributed to this report. Contact Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.