Question: Our trash pickup day is on Friday. Is the city planning an alternate day for us? It will be two Fridays in a row with Christmas and New Year’s.

Answer: If you are on a three-cart collection route and it is your gray cart (rubbish) that is collected on Fridays, leave that cart at the curb as usual, and it will be collected within a day or two, according to Honolulu County’s Department of Environmental Services.

Christmas and New Year’s Day are the only two holidays when the municipal government doesn’t collect garbage, recycling or green waste. Drop-off facilities also will be closed those days.

The holidays are a week apart, so this problem occurs every year, but affecting different customers; last year it was folks whose garbage is collected on Wednesdays.

As mentioned, the missed garbage collection (gray cart) on three-cart routes will be made up, but recycling days that fall on Christmas and New Year’s Day won’t be made up, the department says. Hold mixed recyclables (blue cart) and green waste (green cart) for your next scheduled pickup.

People who live in neighborhoods with twice-a-week manual collection of garbage only should hold their trash for their next scheduled collection day, the department says.

All convenience centers, transfer stations, HPOWER and Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill will be closed Christmas and New Year’s Day. They will reopen on Saturday and Jan. 2.

Q: I have a fake tree. It’s too big to fit in the bin, and I can’t cut it up. What do I do? This is for after Christmas.

A: Because it is an artificial Christmas tree too large to fit in your gray bin, you can make an appointment for bulky pickup. Go to opala.org or call 768-3200 to make an appointment. As with other collections, there won’t be any bulky item pickup on Christmas or New Year’s Day.

Live trees cannot be left out for bulky pickup. Honolulu County’s Department of Environmental Services provides these instructions:

“The city provides automated curbside green waste collection to more than 160,000 homes on Oahu. For those with green carts, please remove all Christmas tree decorations and cut the tree to fit inside the cart with the lid closed. Cut the tree into lengths up to three feet and trim branches to ensure it will fall freely from the cart during collection. Trees with tinsel or flocking should be cut, bagged and disposed of in the gray cart.

“For households on manual curbside collection, cut the tree into lengths up to three feet, bundle and place at the curb on your normal refuse day. Residents may drop off whole Christmas trees at the nearest Refuse Convenience Center (except for Wahiawa Convenience Center) or at the Kapaa Transfer Station in Kailua. At no cost, residents may drop off trees with no flocking or tinsel at the composting facility in Wahiawa.

“Condominiums and commercial buildings may deliver large loads of Christmas trees directly to the composting facility; tip fees will be waived over the holidays. To arrange these deliveries, please contact ENV’s Refuse Division at 768-3200.”

Auwe

Enough with the fireworks all night long! If people are so broke, where are they getting the money to buy all these fireworks? Illegal ones, I am talking about. Loud. — Frustrated reader

(Note: Similar sentiments have been shared by many, many readers.)

Mahalo

Many thanks to the customer ahead of me who noticed that I was about to drop my heavy coin purse as I rummaged through my backpack trying to find my reusable bag. It would have been a clattering inconvenience if all those coins had ended up on the floor, and with the line so long already. His quick reflexes saved me from embarrassment. — A reader

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.