Posted on: Saturday, April 9, 2005

Big Isle recycler closes 6 of 8 redemption sites

Associated Press

HILO, Hawai'i — A Big Island beverage container recycler has closed six of its eight redemption centers, saying the state is behind in its reimbursements for the nickel-per-container refunds.

The state Department of Health admitted yesterday that it got behind in paying Atlas Recycling, but said it has caught up.

Atlas Recycling said Thursday that it had stopped operating its centers where consumers could get their nickel container deposits back in Hawi, Waikoloa, Honoka'a, Pahala, Na'alehu and Ocean View, while continuing to accept bottles and cans at its Hilo and Kona facilities.

"We have worked hard to earn the trust of people in these communities and have established a convenient location for customers to redeem their HI-5 beverage containers while offering schools an opportunity to raise money," company spokeswoman Willette Allen said.

"We are personally upset and emotional about closing these sites, but we have 10 employees that depend on our ability to stay in business," she said. "We will leave it up to the state to catch up with its payments with us and then evaluate the reopening of the satellite sites."

Atlas Recycling officials said they hoped to reopen the closed sites by May 1.

Larry Lau, state deputy director for environmental health, said there had been a problem, but it has been rectified.

"We got behind on paying them," Lau said.

"In essence, we needed to transfer funds between fiscal quarters, and that process took longer than we anticipated," he said. "My information is they have now received payment on eight of the 10 invoices they've submitted."

One more invoice is to be paid Tuesday, leaving one to go, he said.

"We've caught up. We're current now," Lau said.

Allen was unavailable for comment yesterday.

The state's bottle deposit law took effect at the start of the year. The state collects about $2.5 million per month in deposits, based on 6 cents per container, and consumers are entitled to get5 cents back for each container redeemed.

Last month the state paid back $1.59 million to consumers in refunds. However, in each of the two previous months, the state paid out only about $300,000.