After nearly a year of test-driving an appointment-based bulky item trash pickup system in a pilot zone — extending from Foster Village to Hawaii Kai and including Waikiki — the city is poised to go islandwide, starting July 1.

The move seeks to end a long-standing and faulty system in which city haulers cruise neighborhoods on designated days each month in search of bulky items left curbside. But success of the new collection system will hinge on efficient and flexible city operations as well as much residential kokua.

In Honolulu, which ranks among the nation’s most densely populated cities, subpar trash collection and disposal practices can get ugly quickly. Further, residents failing to comply with pickup rules contribute to uglification of streets situated in a locale touted as one of the world’s most naturally beautiful places.

In some respects, the switch to an appointment- based system is a sensible move, especially for apartment housing. The old system, in which monthly pickup is conducted over a period of up to four days, is not a good fit for multiple-unit dwellings fronting short streets where discards can pile up — and attract wildcat dumping.

Under the new system, multi-unit dwellings have two options. A property or resident manager may manage and schedule appointments for an entire building, limiting the pickup appointment total to 20 bulky items or eight metal appliances. Or each individual unit may make their own appointments for collecting up to five bulky items or two metal appliances.

The latter option also applies to single-family homes. As the new islandwide effort gets underway, the city should allow latitude in regard to the count of items scheduled for pickup. Rigid adherence to set limits will likely result in some items lingering curbside — creating eyesores and prompting safety concerns — while awaiting a follow-up appointment.

Two types of city trucks collect bulky items. One hauls large metal appliances to a recycling company. The other collects items such as televisions, mattresses and furniture — and disposes them at the H-POWER plant, which generates energy from the waste. Before scheduling a pickup, though, residents should consider a reuse option — donating to organizations such as Helping Hands Hawaii and other community-focused nonprofits that accept used items.

Since its start, the bulky item pilot has undergone some tweaking. In a statement last week, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said the upshot is an operation that has proved to be “more manageable and efficient” than the established program.

Moving forward, the islandwide system will likely need more refining. And the city should make proof of improvement accessible to the public. It’s easy to spot some progress — such as when large and heavy rubbish is no longer cluttering stretches of sidewalk and streets. But some of the city’s pickup problems have not been readily visible.

A scathing city auditor’s report, released in August 2018, revealed that the program, operated by the Department of Environmental Services’ Refuse Collection division, was then rife with red flags. Among them: excessive sick leave, staffing shortages, and agreements with union leaders that resulted in plodding collections and excessive overtime. Of some $10.5 million the department spent on overtime in fiscal 2016, nearly three-quarters was for the Refuse Collection branch.

In addition to on-time pickups, public support for the program will be tied to the city’s ability to show correction to these flaws, which are ultimately costly to taxpayers.

Residents and property owners, for their part, must shoulder personal responsibility for keeping our street- scapes clean: everyone must adhere to their appointments and place items curbside only on designated days.