Question: Do you know of anyone taking the plastic caps that we remove from HI-5 recyclables before redemption?
Answer: Kokua Line called four Oahu companies listed as plastic recyclers on the city’s Department of Environmental Services website and found only one — RRR Recycling Services Hawaii — that accepts plastic caps from HI-5 recyclable containers. It doesn’t pay for them, and applies limits.
Before we get to the details, we’ll mention another option, a special event that will collect plastic bottle caps and lids to prevent them from becoming marine debris. This effort will be part of the Going Green community recycling event scheduled for Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Castle High School, 45-386 Kaneohe Bay Dr.
Bottle caps aren’t usually sought at Going Green events, but this time the nonprofit group Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii (B.E.A.C.H) is participating, and will collect them to deter marine debris, according to a news release from Going Green coordinator Rene Mansho.
Otherwise, the drive-thru event will accept free drop-off of the usual items: computers, monitors, printers and scanners; one TV per car; HI-5 beverage containers; lead-acid batteries (auto and boat); usable clothing, including prom dresses, women’s business attire and accessories; usable household items; used eyeglasses and hearing aids; towels and blankets. Donations of canned goods and pet food also will be accepted.
There are numerous items that Going Green won’t accept, including toner; ink cartridges; tires, paint; metal; motor oil; cooking oil; hazardous fluids; cardboard or other paper; plastics other than HI-5 recyclables; wood; bulky items; and lithium, nickel cadmium and nickel hydride batteries.
Getting back to RRR Recycling Services Hawaii, the company that will take the plastic caps when you redeem your HI-5 plastic recyclables. Here are the rules:
>>Separate the cap from the bottle.
>>Turn in one cap per bottle. The number of caps must equal the number of containers you redeem. In other words, you can’t bring in a huge bag of caps you’ve saved up.
>>You won’t be paid for the cap. Redemption applies to the container only.
>>The bottle must be empty.
>>Leave the label on the plastic bottle, because that’s where a symbol confirming the container can be redeemed generally is found.
RRR Recycling Services Hawaii has redemption kiosks throughout Oahu, according to its website, rrrhi5.com. For more information, check the website or call 682-5600.
The other recycling companies we contacted said they don’t take the plastic caps because there’s little market for them on the global commodities market. The caps are made of lower-grade plastic than HI-5 plastic bottles, are difficult to bale because they are brittle and small, and would have to be collected and stored in huge numbers to reach the volume needed for sale, they said.
The city’s Department of Environmental Services has told Kokua Line in the past that residential customers on the city’s automated three-cart collection routes should remove plastic caps from recyclable bottles and place the caps in the gray carts, where general rubbish goes for burning at Oahu’s H-POWER waste-to-energy plant.
The HI-5 bottles themselves may be placed in the blue cart for recycling, or, better yet, be redeemed by the consumer for the 5-cent per-bottle deposit.
You are one of many readers who’ve called or emailed saying that you have a lot of plastic bottle caps saved up, and hate to simply throw them away. Your concern highlights the value of reducing single-use plastic bottles in Hawaii overall.
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.
