Layers of cardboard mixed with flyaway newspapers, bottles and a random sneaker rush by on a conveyer belt at RRR Recycling Services Hawaii at Campbell Industrial Park.

For four years, Manasseh Santos of Kahaluu has stood next to "the sorting line," picking out items that don’t belong. Sharp eyes, quick reflexes and nimble hand-eye coordination are necessary for the job, he said.

From observation, baseball-pitcher power and accuracy also are needed to toss items into the correct place.

The biggest challenge of the job?

Removing plastic shopping bags, according to Santos, because they often contain unknown items.

"You need to snatch them quick, rip it open and throw the bag in the trash while not missing anything else coming up toward you," he said. "But you can’t spend too much time trying to open it."

The sorting line at RRR Recycling’s 30,000-square-foot facility is where the items in your blue bin go at the end of pickup day.

It’s a dirty and noisy operation, with bulldozers pushing mountains of recyclables into big piles that are pulled up and sorted along 400 linear feet of conveyer belts at differing levels and speeds.

Workers in hard hats, gloves and masks at the front of the line help remove plastic bags and other trash to prevent entanglement in the machines. Farther down the line, automated screening machines separate out the bulk of the material — cardboard and newspaper. Next, magnets pick up steel cans.

But workers like Santos are needed because pieces of plastic bags and cardboard still manage to get through.

At the end of the line, the belt slows down and workers do more detailed sorting, plucking out different plastics and aluminums and dropping them into appropriate bays.

CITY RECYCLING trucks empty blue bins from homes along more than 150 routes on Oahu, collecting an estimated 20,000 tons of recyclables a year. The material is dumped at RRR Recycling and sorted within a 24- to 48-hour time span, said company owner Dominic Henriques. The recyclable items are then baled and shipped overseas, mostly to China.

There is a certain tolerance for items that don’t belong in the blue bins, but the greater the volume, the greater the cost of sorting.

"What we’re most concerned about is that people are using their recycling carts for recycling, not garbage," said Suzanne Jones, assistant chief of the City and County of Honolulu’s Refuse Division.

Following the same trend in most U.S. cities, Jones said that with today’s technology, it is still easier to collect mixed rather than pre-sorted recyclables.

The sneaker? It didn’t belong in a blue bin. It was diverted into the trash pile bound for the H-POWER plant, also at Campbell Industrial Park, which burns waste into energy.

Santos said if there is one message he could get out to homeowners, it’s to put recyclables into the blue bin loose, not bagged. (The most unusual item he’s sorted? An elephant-foot stool that appeared to be made from real elephant skin, complete with dried-out toenails.)

SINCE its islandwide implementation in 2010, curbside recycling has diverted about 6 percent of Oahu’s waste from the landfill every year, according to a city report.

Some 160,000 households were given three trash bins — blue, green and gray — for free curbside pickup. (The city recently proposed charging a $10 monthly fee in a bill being considered by the City Council.)

The 64-gallon blue bins are for mixed recyclables, while the 96-gallon green bins are for yard waste, which is delivered to Hawaiian Earth Products in Kapolei to be composted and resold as organic soil. Blue and green bins are picked up every two weeks on alternating schedules.

Trash in the 96-gallon gray bins, picked up weekly, is destined for the H-POWER plant.

Not everyone who has a blue bin participates in the recycling effort, and a lot of potential recyclables, especially plastics, are not ending up in blue bins. (Check the bottom of the container for the number 1 or 2 in a recycling symbol to see if it belongs in the blue bin.)

The materials are sold for highest market value, according to Henriques.

Cardboard and newspaper, which make up the greatest volume, are baled and shipped to manufacturers in China to be repurposed into newsprint and packaging materials.

Plastics — polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) — also are sent to China to be made into clothing and carpeting.

Aluminum is crushed and sent to the mainland to be melted into new aluminum products. Steel goes to Schnitzer Steel in Honolulu. Glass goes to California for paving material.

The Refuse Division’s Jones said the city has a revenue-sharing contract with RRR Recycling that pays the company about $1.04 million a year for processing but splits the proceeds from selling the recyclables. The arrangement has resulted in net revenue to the city of $1.5 million annually since fiscal year 2011, she said.

WHILE recycling is not mandatory, there are minor consequences for putting unwanted items in the blue bins.

Honolulu’s recycling trucks are equipped with video cameras that help monitor contents as they are being emptied. If a household repeatedly puts trash instead of recyclables into the blue bin, the driver notes the address and the city will issue a notice. After more than three notices, the city will remove the blue bin.

There have been very few instances of this, according to Jones, with most people willing to comply.

"We’re not going after people for putting in the wrong plastic or the wrong paper," she said. "That’s not as important as making sure people aren’t putting trash in the (blue bins)."

Despite an extensive public outreach campaign, which includes the website opala.org, the Green Channel (Channel 332 on Oceanic Time Warner Cable) and recycling songs by Henry Kapono, confusion remains over exactly what is supposed to go in the blue bin.

Jones’ goal is to dispel the confusion and boost the recycling load to about 28,000 tons annually, potentially increasing the city’s net revenue as well. She said she believes this can be done once residents understand the full range of recyclables that go into the blue bin.

A play, "The Spirits of Recycling," was performed by Honolulu Theatre for Youth and is available as a coloring book, and a series of 30-second video clips was recently released.

For the past 15 years, the city has offered the public a free Tour de Trash bus tour that provides a behind-the-scenes look at the H-POWER plant, the RRR Recycling sorting line and businesses with model recycling programs.

The tours book up quickly, according to Jones, with long waiting lists. Dates for this year’s tour have yet to be determined.

Most people know that plastic beverage bottles go in the blue bin, but do not know the full array of other plastic containers that can go in there, according to Jones. (Bottle caps are made of a different kind of plastic and do not go in the blue bin.)

She says the city conducted public surveys that found people wanted clear examples, with a focus on what to do rather than what not to do.

"We are trying to make it simple for people, not complex," she said.

Suggestions included putting the information where people shop.

The city has partnered with Costco Wholesale Corp. to include signs on shelves near products that belong in the blue bin. Costco also has a display near the exit of all its Oahu stores showing what goes into each bin, plus informational stickers, funded by Honolulu taxpayers, that illustrate what goes in the blue bin.

"I think it’s important for people to know that recycling has value, that what goes in the blue, green and gray carts generates revenue," Jones said. "The city benefits by not sending waste to the landfill."

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ON THE NET:
» opala.org