Getting another green bin awaits union negotiations

Question: I’m wondering why so many neighbors on my street have two green waste bins and I can’t get another one. I called the city office several times and got various answers but no second container. We have several large trees in our back and front yards that yield leaves and flowers.

Answer: The city has a process for issuing extra carts to households on its automated collection routes, which dispose of general rubbish in gray carts, yard trimmings in green carts and mixed recyclables in blue carts. However, assuming that you qualify for a second green cart based on the size of your lot (generally more than 10,000 square feet, or 8,000 square feet in especially rainy neighborhoods), the best you can hope for at the moment is to be placed on a waiting list. That’s because the issuance of extra bins of any color has been suspended while the city works out a new routing system.

“Additional carts cannot be provided until the new routing system is in place after completion of ongoing talks with United Public Workers, which the city anticipates occurring within the next two months,” said Markus Owens, a spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Services. “All current routes are now at or over capacity. Route capacity is established by the number of carts in accordance with collective bargaining agreements. Once the new routing system is implemented about six weeks after completion of talks with UPW, the city can resume distribution of additional carts in areas where capacity will grow with the new routes.”

Adding new routes requires changes in manpower and equipment, and the department must work within budget constraints. “This means the city may not be able to provide additional carts in all areas,” Owens said.

To find out whether you are eligible to get on the waiting list for a second green cart, call 768-3200 and press 2.

The Department of Environmental Services will be updating its website, opala.org, and its recorded telephone message to provide consistent information on this topic, Owens said.

At the time you submitted your question to Kokua Line, only the telephone message had the most current information, which may have contributed to the confusion.

Q: Was it only a dream when I read Haas avocados were USDA approved to take to the mainland like pineapples without fumigation treatment?

A: Perhaps you were dreaming, or maybe you’re recalling the wrong avocado. The U.S. Department of Agriculture eased exports of Hawaii-grown Sharwil avocados, not the Hass variety. (See note below about spelling).

Exports had been stunted since the early 1990s, when the USDA decreed that avocados could not be shipped from Hawaii to the mainland to prevent the spread of a particular fruit fly. The rule allowed Sharwil exports only if the fruit was first fumigated or chilled — treatments that would destroy the flavor and texture of the delicate, colorful variety.

Hawaii farmers stopped exporting the Sharwil under those conditions and began the long slog to clear its name — scientific research showed it to be an unlikely source of the pest in question — so that it could be exported in its natural state.

Success was achieved in September 2013, when the USDA announced that untreated Sharwils could be shipped from Hawaii to 32 states and Washington, D.C., from November through March every year, which coincides with the local harvest season.

You can read details of the updated federal regulation at 808ne.ws/1REcXfx.

As to the avocado of your dreams, the Hass avocado is named for Rudolph Hass, the late Southern California postman who in 1926 grafted seedlings that grew into the first Hass avocado trees; he patented the name in 1935, according to the California Avocado Commission. “Haas” is a common misspelling.

Mahalo

Thank you to whoever cleaned up the stairs that connect Alapai Street from Green to Spencer streets. We have a lot of vagrants in the area and there is a lot of trash, and the heavy rain months ago deposited a lot of dirt on the stairs. What a surprise to see them cleaned up and the grass and bougainvillea trimmed. Mahalo!

Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.