Editorial: Bulky-item mess lies with residents

It’s only just begun, but the pilot program testing an online appointment-based system of scheduling bulky item pickup has had initial results that are disheartening, to say the least.

If things don’t improve in the next few months, the Honolulu City Council may need to reconsider proposals to charge trash fees of everyone, to support the real costs of keeping the city clean.

Like magnets, the piles slated for collection around town have attracted added trash heaps. Some have surmised that neighbors mounded rubbish on top of the scheduled items. These eyesores are popping up around town and now are starting to smell, in the summer heat.

The pilot is due to last until January. Whether it can endure that long is at least doubtful.

To be sure, the city was under some pressure to improve on the past fixed-pickup-day scheme: A 2017 audit highlighted inefficiencies in an operation racking up overtime to an unacceptable level.

The response of the Department of Environmental Services to that audit already signaled that the Caldwell administration was leaning toward instituting by-appointment pickup, a plan adopted by numerous mainland cities.

The June launch of the new bulky-item service needs more time for residents in the test area (largely, the urban Honolulu zone) to get up to speed on the new rules, said Timothy Houghton, the department’s deputy director. Some of the accumulating mess might have resulted from confusion over the past monthly pickup dates, Houghton added.

He may be right, but if a steep learning curve is the primary obstacle to success, that won’t be overcome without a much more aggressive public education campaign than Honolulu has seen so far.

The problem may not stem only from residents who need schooling on the program. There are sure to be scofflaws to blame, those who don’t care to make arrangements for the bulky item pickup. They simply take it as an opportunity to pile their own rubbish onto the legitimate items left out at the curb.

Almost certainly, the success or failure of the new system, which does offer at least the theoretical chance for greater efficiency, lies in the hands of such people.

Houghton said he doesn’t want to sweep up constantly after them, because that would simply enable their bad habits to persist. But he also acknowledged the need to monitor the mess to make sure it doesn’t reach the point of being a sanitation problem.

Under current law, items left for pickup fronting a property are the responsibility of the property owner, who could be cited for rubbish that he or she did not put there.

City inspectors will need to assure residents that if they document what items they did place out front, they won’t be cited for the whole pile. Otherwise, it’s uncertain that the city will be alerted to the problems in a timely way.

In fact, the city will need to actively invite feedback from neighbors in order to keep tabs on street conditions.

Houghton also said a revision to the protocols for apartment dwellers is being implemented, enabling individual households to schedule their pickups rather than leaving it to a property manager to handle. This, it’s hoped, will keep better controls on the curbside pickups, as often the manager is unavailable.

That remains to be seen, though, as further confusion also could result.

Other cities have managed an appointment system, according to the 2017 audit. If Honolulu residents intend to make this work, with limited fee support or without, they will have to take ownership of it.

Or, they can carry on acting like slobs — and then pay the full bill for a crew, public or private, to mop up.