Several hundred apartment, condominium and townhouse complexes and nonprofits would be charged for city garbage pickup under a proposal made this week by the administration using a fee schedule that’s based on how many dumpsters they use.

Bill 9, which will get its first airing by the City Council on Wednesday, calls for charging about 160,000 Oahu households that use the standard, city-issued gray, green and blue bins $10 a month beginning Jan. 1. Those property owners would be assessed the fee twice a year and see the charges appear as a line item under the twice-a-year estimated property tax bills they already receive, said Tim Houghton, the city’s deputy environmental services director, who broke down the nuts and bolts of the plan to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Thursday.

Equity is the key component of the bill submitted Wednesday by Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration, said Houghton.

Failure to pay could result in removal of the bins and discontinuation of the service under the bill. If trash were to begin piling up, Houghton said, existing city laws that require homeowners to properly dispose of their trash and keep their sidewalks and street front free of trash could kick in. Those laws call for fines that compound daily.

About 20,000 Oahu households that get the traditional manual pickup twice a week, typically those homes in geographic areas where automated trucks cannot operate, would also pay the $10 monthly fee and follow the same guidelines, Houghton said.

There are also about 80 properties owned by nonprofits that get automated collection and 30 nonprofit properties that get manual service. They would be charged a "business" rate of a minimum $75 that would be higher if they have multiple containers or containers that are larger in size, Houghton said.

Those nonprofit properties include churches, temples or other houses of worship as well as private schools.

A third group of about 250 condominium, apartment and townhouse complexes and nonprofits that currently get city "front-loader" or dumpster pickup service would also need to pay a disposal charge of $314 per standard, 3-cubic-yard dumpster. "The language we’re proposing makes sure that nonprofits and for-profit businesses get treated the same,"Houghton said. Currently there are about 73 nonprofits in the front-loader category.

The $314 amount was based on an estimate provided in a 2010 study, Houghton said. Like the other fees, it is subject to changed based on the whims of Council members.

The city has provided waste pickup service to dumpsters for condominium, apartment and townhouse complexes as long as the properties provide city trucks enough space to turn around. Houghton estimated no more than 20 percent of the island’s condominium, apartment or townhouse complexes have been picked up by the city.

A fourth category involves roughly 114 business properties in the Chinatown area. City officials agreed to provide six-days-a-week service to those properties about a decade ago as a result of concern over sanitation in Honolulu’s oldest quarter. They would need to pay at least $150 a month under the bill, again based on how large their containers are and how many they have.

Collection for those receiving dumpster service could be charged either monthly or every other month, Houghton said.