After a slow start, Hawai'i's people are redeeming more than half of all the bottles and cans sold in the state.

More than 150 million bottles and cans were redeemed during July and August — increasing the overall rate since redemption began in January to about 54 percent.

Laurence Lau, deputy director of environmental health, said the statistics offer a reason for cautious optimism for a program that began slowly, with complaints from consumers who said too few centers were open and the hours were too short.

"To me, the overall trend is encouraging," he said.

Sierra Club Hawai'i director Jeff Mikulina agreed, especially since it was only in January that the redemption law has allowed people to start getting their nickel deposits back.

"It's over twice as much recycling of beverage containers as we were doing last year at this time. To think we can double it within a year is very promising," Mikulina said, noting especially that the containers would otherwise have ended up in landfills or burned in Honolulu's garbage-to-energy plant.

Mikulina said the state has increased the number and hours of centers where people can redeem their HI-5 containers. But overall, he said, the program still lacks really accessible and convenient recycling centers.

"It's baffling that our redemption is so high, even though our system is so clumsy," he said. The increase in redemptions shows that Hawai'i's residents really want to embrace recycling as the right thing to do and "it speaks volumes about the people of the state of Hawai'i," he said.

Mikulina hopes legislators will review the law and require retail stores to take back the containers. "We really need to have stores take these bottles and cans back," he said.

Mikulina said the other 10 states that have recycling have stores redeeming the containers. And he's convinced that's how they reach enviable redemption rates of more than 80 percent.

PROBLEMS REMAIN

Kailua resident Sam Chun said Hawai'i's redemption centers have gotten more convenient "but there are still problems."

He collects his bottles and cans for his grandson but sometimes finds the centers closed because the bins are full.

Chun thinks the state needs to do more to make recycling more convenient. Even though many people are recycling, he said, he's surprised to still see some containers littering the community.

"A lot of guys are still throwing those bottles and cans away," Chun said.

Mikulina said he is waiting for the next beach litter cleanup to compare the percentage of beverage containers this year to past years to try to gauge the impact on the containers littering the landscape.

Lau said he understands that the July statistics surged because of a big load from a commercial recycling company serving a lot of restaurants and bars. He said the state tried to make the statistics more accurate by tracking the deposits to the months when the containers came in.

Since the start of the year, he said, recyclers have hired new staff, nearly doubled the number of centers on O'ahu, increased hours and made improvements statewide. "The more convenience we can provide for the public, the better," Lau said.

Lau said the state was pleased to hear Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann make a commitment this week to creating more redemption centers at city parks and other locations, especially in the region from Kahala through Pearl City.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.