A patchwork garbage-collection system has developed over the years on Oahu. Some apartment buildings, churches and private schools receive municipal service at no charge beyond that already paid in property taxes, while the great majority of similar sites must pay private haulers to take away the trash — despite also paying property taxes. Single-family homes, meanwhile, generally receive curbside municipal service at no additional charge.

The city administration understandably seeks to correct this disparity, but was rebuffed by the Honolulu City Council in its earlier attempt to implement a user fee for all trash pickups, as other Hawaii counties do. Now the administration is tackling the issue in a different way, framing their decision as a matter of equity.

The Department of Environmental Services has announced that the city will cease service for about 110 multi-dwelling residential complexes and 70 private schools, churches and other nonprofit organizations as of Jan. 31, 2015. Those sites will have to hire private trash-hauling companies, just as more than 4,000 other apartment, townhouse and condominium complexes and nonprofit institutions already do.

This pragmatic decision will free up city crews for other work on which they’ve fallen behind, such as bulky-item pickup, and allow the city to reduce the amount it spends to maintain aging front-loader trucks needed specifically for pickup at the affected properties. The City Council has denied funding the past two years to replace the trucks, in part to drive the administration to just this decision.

The plan, however, does not eliminate inequity in municipal garbage collection. It’s true that it is unfair for some multi-dwelling buildings and nonprofits to receive subsidized municipal service while similar property owners in similar neighborhoods pay private trash-haulers on top of their property taxes.

However, by this logic an argument could be made that it’s unfair that those residential property owners pay anything at all — the use of the special front-loading garbage trucks notwithstanding — since owners of most single-family homes get their garbage collected by the city, at no additional fee.

We doubt the city is seriously considering eliminating garbage pickup at single-family homes down the road. So rather than describing the decision to eliminate multi-dwelling residential pickup as one centered on equity, city administrators should make their case plainly, based on the fiscal reality:

» The cost of trash pickup in general outstrips the tax money allocated to cover it.

» Trash pickup at the affected sites is even more expensive, given that front-loading trucks are required.

» No one can really explain how the current system evolved to serve some multi-dwelling buildings, religious institutions, private schools and other nonprofits but not others.

» Since the vast majority of similar sites already pay private haulers, it makes sense to level the playing field and end the special city service for the heretofore fortunate few.

The larger issue of inequity among single-family homes and apartment, condo and townhouse dwellers remains for another day, which we suspect will come sooner rather than later. After all, residential property-tax rates are the same for both types of housing, and the city and state are encouraging high-rise living as a more sustainable lifestyle suited for Oahu’s strained natural resources.

A dual system that has residents of multi-unit buildings paying private companies to haul away their trash, while owners of single-family homes continue to receive city service at no additional cost is sure to rankle as the high-rise population booms — and to spur renewed calls for either private service or a city user fee for all.