Why doesn’t Hawai‘i County currently recycle other types of paper?

The process to recycle paper from Hawai‘i County is complex.  Hawai‘i Island has a low population density spread over a vast area which makes collecting recyclables costly and resource intensive.  Transportation costs are high because Hawai‘i Island is… Read more »

Why is the County of Hawai‘i collecting fewer types of recyclables?

Beginning in 2013 global markets for recycling became more restrictive and as a result the recyclables collected less valuable.  Currently there is a worldwide glut of unwanted recyclables and that has impacted the County of Hawai‘i’s Drop-Off Recyclin… Read more »

What product takes up the most space in US landfills?

According to the US EPA, the material most frequently encountered in MSW landfills is plain old paper, it sometimes accounts for more than 40 percent of a landfill’s contents. Newspapers alone can take up as much as 13 percent of the space in US landfi… Read more »

Why is it important to sort my recyclables according to guidelines?

The processing facility is a combination of mechanical and manual sorting operations designed to produce the highest quality material streams at a manageable cost. Contaminants in the recyclables increase the costs of separating them at the processing… Read more »

What happens to the materials that aren’t recyclable? Don’t they just get recycled anyway?

As much as we would like to recycle everything we receive, it’s a matter of market demand.  We cannot collect and process materials if there is no one to buy them economically.  Similarly, if we include too much “junk” with our materials (such as shred… Read more »

What happens to my recyclables after processing? Are any recyclables processed locally?

Depending on the collected material they are either baled or crushed. Baled materials are generally shipped to the mainland or internationally for sorting and processing. Crushed materials can also be shipped or in the case of glass are sometimes used… Read more »

Do I have to remove the labels from my recyclable glass bottles?

No, all you have to do is rinse your glass containers cleanly and sort into the glass bins. See Drop-Off Recycling for more information.

Who picks up my recycling and where is it processed?

The County of Hawai`i currently does not have curbside rubbish or recycling pick-up services. There are private entities island-wide that provide this service. Please refer to the yellow pages for rubbish and recycling pick up services.

What commodities and how many tons are diverted in the County of Hawai‘i?