If no can, no can: 21 redemption centers shuttered

The number of beverage container redemption centers on Oahu has dropped significantly this year as the price of aluminum plummeted by about 22 percent.

The state said 21 redemption centers have been shuttered, including 18 in the past three months. Most of those centers belonged to Reynolds Recycling.

Hauula resident Marvin Iseke said he recently met a homeless man who had pedaled a bicycle more than 8 miles from Punaluu to Kahuku to redeem bottles and cans for recycling because the redemption site in Hauula was closed. Iseke said the Kahuku site is now closed too, leaving the closest site to Punaluu in Kahaluu, 11.5 miles away.

“That’s quite a distance. It’s a serious matter,” Iseke said. “A lot of people who go to have the bottles and cans redeemed are homeless. A lot of them rely on that extra money to buy food.”

The beverage container redemption program, which got underway in 2005, is intended to reduce litter and promote participation in recycling efforts.

According to the state, more than 900 million beverage containers on average are sold statewide annually. Under the Hawaii Deposit Beverage Container Program, HI-5, a deposit of 5 cents is tacked on to each container purchase. The nickel is refunded when the container is returned at a redemption center.

Consumers are also charged a nonrefundable container fee of 1 cent, which is used to pay recyclers for processing.

Some businesses operating recycling sites complain that the cost of collecting, handling and shipping recyclables has gone up but there has been no increase in the handling fees in the past nine years.

“It’s just hard. Income has not increased … but our costs have definitely gone up,” said Dominic Henriques, president of RRR Recycling Services Hawaii.

Reynolds and RRR are among several companies operating state-certified redemption sites. Since the beginning of the year, Reynolds has closed well over a dozen of its 37 Oahu sites, and RRR Recycling Services shut down four mobile sites.

Hawaii Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo said state officials are not opposed to increasing handling fees by a penny but that they must look at the sustainability of the overall beverage container recycling program.

She said given last year’s total redemption of nearly 650 million containers, even a 1-cent increase in the handling fee would result in additional expenses of $6.5 million.

Okubo said it’s too early to tell how the closures this year are affecting the redemption rate.

Aluminum has been the most valued material in recyclables in Hawaii, sometimes making up for potential losses in the collection of plastic and glass, industry observers say.

Currently, the price of aluminum is 70 cents per pound, down from about 90 cents a year ago. The price was up to $1.20 per pound in 2011.

Fewer aluminum cans are being sold and collected, compared to an increase in glass containers and plastics.

According to the state, the annual number of aluminum containers sold in Hawaii has decreased by more than 71 million over the past decade — from 470.9 million in fiscal 2006 to 399.4 million in fiscal 2015.

The number of redeemed aluminum containers decreased from 305.5 million in fiscal 2006 to 303.5 million in fiscal 2015, even though a higher percentage of aluminum containers were redeemed.

In fiscal 2006, about 67 percent of beverage containers sold were redeemed for recycling. The percentage climbed to 78.7 in fiscal 2009, before dropping in the past couple of years back to 67 percent.

The number of glass containers decreased as well, from 153.8 million in 2006 to 110.1 million in fiscal 2015. Redemption of plastic containers, however, increased from 168.7 million in 2006 to 236.4 million in 2015.

On Oahu, recycling businesses receive 2 cents in handling fees from the state for each plastic or aluminum container redeemed, and 4 cents for glass containers.

On neighbor islands, the handling fee is 3 cents for plastic and aluminum containers and 4 cents for glass containers.

Recycling businesses say they have asked state lawmakers to consider proposals to increase the handling fees by 1 cent per container, but the Legislature has taken no action.

Choon James, who has worked as a real estate broker in the Hauula area, maintains that the reduction in the number of sites has affected people who are trying to be self-reliant.

“We know there are homeless people who recycle so that they can buy themselves a hot meal a day,” she said.