HILO -- Throwing it out is going to cost you.
Big Island residents can expect a bevy of new charges and fee increases as the county Department of Environmental Management strives to become financially self-sufficient. The department wants to create and raise fees to wean itself from the general fund, which is paid by property taxes.

Currently, one-third of the department's funding comes from commercial tipping fees. The remaining two-thirds is paid out of the county's general fund.

The most controversial so far is a "pay as you throw" plan that would phase in a per-bag fee of $2 to $2.50 for residential garbage. The program, to be phased in over three years, might be replaced with a line-item property tax increase in the face of public opposition.

"I know this wasn't going to be a popular decision," Environmental Management Director Lono Tyson said. "But these are hard times and hard decisions have to be made."

But other fees and increases are expected to start sooner. The department wants to increase the $15 fee on vehicle registrations that funds an abandoned vehicle program and increase the $85-per-ton commercial tipping fee to as much as $120.

Starting Jan. 1, the county also plans to charge 65 cents per pound for disposing of electronic waste at Recycle Hawaii e-waste disposal sites. The program cost the county more than $320,000 this year.

Sewer fees also will be going up by midyear -- once a sewer rate study is completed.

There's an ordinance already in place that allows a $25-per-ton green-waste tipping fee that is intended to be used islandwide when the Kealakehe green waste operation is moved to the Puuanahulu site. The County Council has also approved an ordinance that bans all organics from county landfills by 2012. The green waste and mulch program currently costs the county about $2 million a year.

The new charges are part of a restructuring of the department, but they're also being driven by unprecedented budget shortfalls that could total $100 million over two years.

"You have to be able to continue these services. You absolutely, absolutely have to," said Scott Enright, a member of the county Environmental Management Commission. "And with this economy, you will have to have increases in fees. I don't think it's sunk in yet."

The department reduced transfer station hours beginning Tuesday both to save about $1 million in personnel costs and also to monitor more closely what is going into garbage chutes at the stations.

At the same time the county budget shrinks because of the recession, a study projects an 80 percent increase in the Environmental Management Department's operating expenses from $25.8 million in fiscal year 2007-08 to $46.3 million in 2014-15.

The county's "Integrated Resources and Solid Waste Management Plan -- The Path to Zero Waste" recently completed the public comment period and is awaiting comments from the state Department of Health before coming back to the county. Hawaii County paid consultant CH2M Hill $525,000 for the study, which state law requires every five years.

Increased costs are attributed to reduction, reuse and recycling programs, transfer stations and landfills. The Hilo landfill, once expected to reach capacity in 2004, now has an estimated four years of life remaining.

"It should have been done a long time ago," Tyson said of the proposed fees. "We've kind of spoiled everyone. ... Let's all be responsible with our garbage. The county has made it too easy for people to be wasteful."