The city will add 12 new garbage trucks to its fleet this fall, hoping to reduce delays in curbside trash pickups that have plagued residents for a year.

The city Department of Environmental Services put 20 new garbage trucks into service earlier this year, but complaints about collection delays continue to roll in, said City Councilman Stanley Chang, who represents much of East Honolulu, Waikiki and parts of Kapahulu, Kaimuki and Ala Moana.

"This is a chronic problem, not just in Hawaii Kai," Chang said. "It’s all over the island."

Bob Ubersax, who lives on Wainiha Street in Hawaii Kai, said trash pickup in his neighborhood often comes days late.

"Whenever I call to complain, they say, ‘Leave it out and we’ll pick it up the next day," he said. "When it doesn’t get picked up for two days, the bigger problem comes when there’s heavier winds blowing down from Kamilo (Nui) Valley. That blows trash all over the neighborhood. I’ve seen five, six bins knocked over and I pick them up myself so people won’t have their trash blowing all over the street."

The addition of 20 trucks "helped the problem," Chang said. "But clearly there’s a long way to go. Obviously there are still a lot of problems."

The city now has 104 "side-loader" trucks in its fleet and 12 more are scheduled to arrive "early in the fall," Markus Owens, spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Services, said in an email.

The city receives complaints about missed pickups "maybe a couple times a month, but that should be diminishing with our new trucks in service," Owens said.

City officials do not track complaints by neighborhood, so it’s impossible to know which areas have the most trouble, Owens said.

Councilman Breene Harimoto said he received dozens of complaints from constituents in his Central Oahu district last year, but the complaints dropped off after the city added the new trucks.

"It was a severe problem last year, a real severe problem in the Pearl City-Aiea area," Harimoto said. "Trash pickups were not occurring in a timely basis, both the regular gray bin trash and the recyclables, as well as the bulky items. The explanation given to us was that Pearl City had the oldest fleet of vehicles and (they) were breaking down a lot. When the new vehicles finally came in and got certified, they put them in service. As far as I know, that resolved the problem in my district."

Drivers who operate the side-loaders will continue to face mandatory, unpaid furlough days when the furloughs resume July 1, Owens said.

Asked if drivers have to work overtime to make up for missed trash pickups, Owens said, "If our crews are unable to service the entire route on the scheduled pickup day, crews hit the missed area first thing the next morning before starting their normal route for that day."

Representatives of the United Public Workers union, which represents city refuse drivers, could not be reached for comment.

None of the explanations has satisfied Ellen Watson, who lives in upper Manoa Valley.

"Trash day is Thursday, but they don’t seem to come on their scheduled day," Watson said. "It’s hard to know when they’re going to come, so it’s been difficult."

Watson serves on the Manoa Neighborhood Board, where city officials have been asked about garbage collection delays "a couple of times" in the past year, Watson said.

"The answer is always, ‘Just leave your trash out and they should come the next day,’" Watson said. "Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t."