Posted on: Friday, January 7, 2005
Huge container backlog stalls redemption centers
| • | Common questions about recycling law |
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Nearly a week after consumers began getting their nickels back under the state's new bottle deposit law, officials say the process is improving but customers still face long lines, areas without redemption centers and general uneasiness with a new system.
The state says redemption centers may use these weight formulas to calculate how much to pay consumers who are turning in "HI 5¢" containers. The law entitles consumers to hand-counts for loads of up to 50 bottles. • Aluminum cans: $1.50 per pound, equivalent to 30 cans. • Glass bottles: 10 cents per pound, equivalent to two bottles. • Plastic bottles: 60 cents per pound, equivalent to 12 bottles. Source: State Department of Health • Mobile sites: For information on the location of mobile vending machine sites, call Rolloffs Hawaii/Reduce Reuse Recycling Services at 845-9313. That company plans to visit the Kailua Daiei store this week with the mobile redemption truck: from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow and Monday. • Links: The state site lists all redemption centers. The city site has more Honolulu information. And www.reynoldsrecycling.com lists that company's centers. Source: State Health Department However, officials said yesterday that Reynolds has expanded hours at its Hawai'i Kai and Kunia locations, and the state now has 45 redemption centers — up nearly one-third from the 34 originally expected. And there are plans to add more.
State deputy health director Laurence Lau said the system is improving but "we have to keep working at getting better."
Yesterday, officials moved to address the most common consumer complaints: not enough convenient places to recycle and whether people who get their containers weighed at the centers get as much money back as they would if the containers were counted at a nickel apiece.
Weighing has been widely used because of heavy traffic at the centers since the redemption program began with the new year.
Lau said the law allows consumers to request a hand-count of 50 or fewer containers. In response to public skepticism about whether prices are fair when calculated by weight, the state has asked retailers to allow customers to ask for hand-counts for loads of up to 100 containers.
Consumers who want an exact container count also can feed their empties into reverse vending machines at various locations.
Lau defended the weighing process, saying it is used in at least three of the 10 other states with deposit laws — including California.
"You move much more containers and people through a redemption center if the containers are weighed instead of counted, but people do have a choice," he said.
Telfer said people who compare what they get by weight and by the piece will find that weighing goes faster and is pretty close to the piece count in many cases.
"Most bottle bill states weigh, they don't count," said Telfer, whose company operates many of the redemption centers.
Makiki resident Joseph Antista knows that the closest center for him is in Mo'ili'ili. But he has a question that a lot of people who live in apartments in his neighborhood want answered: "Can the cans be smashed?"
Not yet, Lau said, but he has talked to one lawmaker who plans to propose such a change to the law.
"We're hoping that at some point flattening can be considered," he said.
Lau said the state now has 45 redemption sites statewide (one in Kahuku has yet to open) and about 10 more pending. That adds up to 24 on O'ahu; nine on Maui; five on the Big Island; five on Kaua'i; one on Moloka'i; and one on Lana'i.
Telfer said Reynolds has added full-time hours, five days a week Tuesdays through Saturdays at the Hawai'i Kai and Kunia centers.
And he has heard the complaint of no centers in Waikiki.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
And some of the problems won't get better until a backlog of empties that people have been storing for the past two months — an estimated 100 million containers — has been turned in, said Terry Telfer, president of Reynolds Recycling Co.
WEIGH VS. COUNT
WHERE TO FIND THEM
