There’s nowhere to have plastic bottle caps recycled

Question: Could you please tell me what organization collects bottle covers? I couldn’t find your past article on this.

Answer: There really hasn’t been a source for recycling plastic bottle caps in Hawaii since Goodwill Industries of Hawaii stopped accepting them a couple of years ago.

Goodwill was part of a partnership of seven different organizations that worked to collect and ship the caps to a recycling plant on the mainland (see Kokua Line, Aug. 29, 2010 — bit.ly/1obwpl2).

The Kokua Hawaii Foundation, in partnership with Method and Preserve, sponsored the first Hawaii School Bottle Cap Collection Challenge earlier this year.

Mililani ‘Ike Elementary School collected the most caps and won a concert by singer Jack Johnson, the foundation’s co-founder.

The foundation is hoping to hold a bottle cap challenge again next year, but the logistics of collecting, storing and shipping the caps, plus the realities of recycling the caps, were an eye-opener, said Carol Feinga, who oversees the school recycling program.

"We are hoping to reconvene as an organization, along with our partners, come July just to see if this is something we can take on again next year," she said. It would not be a year-round effort.

During this year’s challenge more than 21,000 pounds of plastic bottle caps, enough to fill a 40-foot container, was collected and shipped to California, where they were cleaned, processed and turned into new products such as toothbrushes and reusable plates, cups and cutlery, Feinga said.

"The goal (of the challenge) is to educate the students on the process of recycling and, more importantly, to bring to attention the mass of single-use plastics. And it sure did," she said. "At this point now we’re hoping to figure out the best solution for this. Is it indeed to do a bottle cap collection or to emphasize the reduction in another form?"

CAPS NOT COLLECTED

Aside from Kokua Hawaii Foundation’s effort, there’s really no recycling of bottle caps currently in the state.

That’s because it involves special, and costly, shipments to the mainland, explained Bruce Iverson, director of marketing and development for Reynolds Recycling, a major recycling company.

"So there’s no way for us to be fiscally responsible and recycle them at the same time," he said.

Because the Hawaii deposit beverage container law urges people to remove the caps when recycling, Reynolds customers are told to just toss the caps into the regular trash bin, where they will be burned at the city’s HPOWER plant.

"It’s always an issue, and we want to make sure that our customers are being responsible in their disposal of the caps," Iverson said.

Question: Can you help us senior citizens? Oceanic TV has changed the Channel 56 program guide to a real small print. We would like to go back to the original large print.

Answer: It’s back to the larger font size by the time you read this.

The unintended smaller print resulted after Oceanic Time Warner Cable installed a new server for its channel guide provider, which affected the font size, explained Sandy Davis, director of customer care.

Oceanic tried unsuccessfully for three weeks to resolve the problem with the new server but gave up and has gone back to the old server until a solution is found on the font, she said.

"We apologize for the inconvenience," Davis said.

MAHALO

To two angels of kindness, whose names I did not get. I fell beside my car in the parking lot of Pearl Kai Shopping Center. Being handicapped, I was not able to get up. After 10 minutes a young woman came to help me, but I was a dead weight and she was not able to lift me. We were close to Jiffy Lube, so she called for help and one of the employees came over and got me up on my feet and into my car. If it were not for them, I would not be writing this note of thanks. Mahalo nui loa to them both.

— Kenneth Yoda, Pearl City

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.