UPDATE: The Trash Pile Isn’t Moving
Some 20,000 tons of baled trash is still sitting at Campbell Industrial Park with no timeline of when it might be shipped to the mainland.
Honolulu has had a contract with Hawaiian Waste Systems LLC to ship trash to Washington while the city does expansion work on its H-Power waste-to-energy plant. Although Hawaiian Waste Systems has held the contract since October they don’t have the necessary permits in place to ship the trash. Attorneys for the city declined to elaborate.
The trash, which has been piling up since October, was scheduled to be shipped by the end of April. But at the May meeting of the Public Infrastructure Committee, Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi noted, “I don’t see any barges out there moving waste to Washington.”
Manny Lanuevo, deputy director of the city Department of Environmental Services, said the city is still negotiating with the company, which does not yet have a permit to ship the trash. He refrained from speculating about whether the company would ever be able to get the trash shipped.
No one from Hawaiian Waste Systems was at the committee meeting to answer questions.
Councilman Ikaika Anderson said he took the company at its word that they were ready and able to ship the garbage when he voted in favor of the contract. “I believe I made a mistake,” he said at the meeting.
