With more than $4 million in bottle deposits that have not been redeemed since the bottle law kicked in, schools and other nonprofit groups are seeing an opportunity to cash in, according to interviews with nonprofit groups and state health officials.

Consumers started paying a 5-cent deposit on eligible containers Nov. 1. Since Jan. 1, they've been allowed to redeem cans and bottles at recycling centers.

But while the state has collected more than $5 million in deposits, it has paid out only about $333,000 in redemptions.

State officials say the low redemption figures may grow quickly as civic groups realize bottle redemption could greatly increase their fund-raising.

"We could do it with the general public," he said. "You got those blue bins (issued by the city for its curbside recycling program). Put them out. We'll pick them up."

Kaimuki High School teacher Kaleo Akim said she quickly realized the bottle law could help raise money and teach her students a valuable lesson.

Akim, the school's Hawaiian language teacher, and her students started the Aloha 'Aina project in January by placing plastic lined buckets in strategic locations around campus to collect plastic bottles, aluminum cans and glass containers.

They have raised about $500 and hope to raise $12,000 through recycling and other efforts.

Health Department spokeswoman Laura Lott said she has heard there's great interest from nonprofit groups.

"We see all kinds of potential for groups like hula halau, canoe clubs and Little League teams to raise money," she said.

Lott said she expects redemption totals to rise as people adjust to the new system and more charity groups get involved.

"I wouldn't say a lot of people are not going to recycle. I would say some of them haven't done it yet because they want to let the bugs get worked out of the system," she said. "I don't think we are going to be able to look at the actual recycling rates for several months. Until people find out where the places are and get comfortable with the idea."

Akim said one problem is the recycling center will only accept so many pounds of plastic bottles at a time. The plastic bottles are the primary containers used at schools and she has been limited to eight bags at a time, which means they always have hundreds of bottles left over.

"It's a bug in the system," she said.

Wood, with the Windward Ahupua'a Alliance, said his group has been collecting to promote the program, not to raise money. He thinks the group, which has collected four bins of containers and hasn't redeemed them yet, will make a couple hundred dollars.

Wood, an accountant, said he hasn't worked out all the numbers as to whether a nonprofit or a new business might prosper by collecting containers and redeeming them, but he believes anyone doing that would benefit the community at large.

"The benefit to business would be doing the right thing in recycling and the benefit to the operation would be to make money off the redemption," he said.