All Day
September 10, 2021 – September 20, 2021
CREATIVE SOLUTIONS DRIVE RETURN OF NORMAL BUSINESS HOURS FOR SOME TRANSFER STATIONS
Hawaiʻi County’s Solid Waste Division (SWD) and the Office of the Mayor have established creative solutions to return five transfer stations to regular operating hours. If all goes as planned, daily operations will resume on Monday, September 13. Returning to normal operating hours will be the Hāwī, Keauhou, Hilo, Kea‘au, and Pāhoa transfer stations. Since August 31, COVID-19-related staffing issues have caused interruptions and reduced services at the Hāwī and Keauhou facilities to Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the Hilo, Kea‘au, and Pāhoa facilities to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
The staffing shortages are now being alleviated thanks to the emergency assistance of a private vendor in transferring waste from the reload facility in Hilo to the West Hawai‘i Sanitary Landfill, through temporary hires of equipment operators and solid waste facility attendants, as well as coordination among multiple County departments and the Department of Health.
“We’re proud to have found creative and out-of-the-box solutions to return vital services to our communities in the midst of the pandemic,” said Mayor Mitch Roth. “We understand the importance of ensuring reasonable and equitable access to our transfer stations and remain committed to doing whatever we can to preventing further closures to the best of our ability. Breaking down silos was a focal point of our administration, and this is just one example of how collaboration between departments, across all sectors, can help us solve some of our
toughest challenges.”
“Once again, during these transfer station closures, people have shown the willingness to come together and work toward a solution,” said Ramzi Mansour, Director of the Department of Environmental Management. “I would like to thank the Office of the Mayor, the Department of Health, Department of Public Works, and the Department of Human Resources, and the hard-working Solid Waste Division staff that worked beyond expectations to continue the services by ‘holding the torch’ as others were out due to the unpredictable COVID-19 Delta variant.”
We appreciate the public for their patience in getting through the ten days of the modified schedule, and we appreciate the hard-working SWD employees for their service. We would also like to thank the public for their understanding and for doing their part in reducing the amount of waste generated on Hawai‘i Island.
Visit hawaiizerowaste.org for scheduled hours of operation at facilities islandwide, and register online to receive notifications about service interruptions.