Question: Whatever happened to the stalemate over the city’s “white bin” recycling program at Oahu schools? The Carlisle administration said it was canceling the city’s involvement since the program was no longer financially practical, but City Council members designated $2.4 million in the city operating budget to not only continue, but to expand the white bin program.

Answer: It looks like the Carlisle administration is not restoring funding for the 20-year-old city “white bin” program that was once the symbol of residential recycling for Oahu.

Instead, it is moving forward with plans for a separate recycling program with the state Department of Education designed to promote recycling among school students, faculty and staff only, city recycling coordinator Suzanne Jones told the City Council’s Budget Committee on Wednesday.

That’s not to say all recycling bins available to the public are gone.

Jones said that Honolulu Disposal Co. continues to put out white bins for the community at about 30 campuses islandwide. The difference, however, is that the city is no longer paying a subsidy for each bin taken away as it did in the past.

Meanwhile, Rolloffs Hawaii has placed blue bins at five campuses for school-only recycling and has plans for 20 or more additional campuses that want them, Jones said.

“The DOE would like to use this school year as an opportunity to gather recycling data, which they can use to restructure the school trash hauling contract (with Rolloffs) so they can include separate collection of recyclables for all schools that are interested in doing so,” she said.

The city is also working with DOE to establish a new recycling grant program that would reward schools based on how large a reduction in waste they achieve, Jones said. For instance, a school reducing its waste stream by 10 percent may be awarded up to $500 while a school with a 25 percent reduction could get $1,000, she said.

The total awards budget would be no more than $250,000 annually, allowing for up to 100 schools to obtain the grant awards, Jones said. It was not clear what happens to the rest of the $2.4 million appropriation.

The administration is hoping to present details of the plan to the Council by December.

The city previously was paying $1.5 million to the roughly 100 schools who put out community white bins around the island. The program existed for 20 years but was terminated this year after a sharp reduction in collections, Jones said.

Collections at white bins have declined by about 70 percent islandwide since the curbside recycling program was first rolled out several years ago, she said.

Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who has led the Council’s push to restore white bin recycling, said she still wants to see more white bins on campuses.

“We’ve been getting a lot of complaints, especially from the rural areas,” Kobayashi said.

———
This update was written by Gordon Y.K. Pang. Suggest a topic for “Whatever Happened To…” by writing Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu 96813; call 529-4747; or email cityeditors@staradvertiser.com.