Curbside garbage pickup is coming to Hawaiian Ocean View Estates within the next few weeks, following approval of a special permit Thursday by the Windward Planning Commission.
The trash pickup service is the brainchild of HOVE residents Dominique Maus and Aaron Bakk, a couple who hatched the idea during the 46-mile round-trip from their home to the nearest garbage transfer station in Waiohinu.
“See a need, fill a need,” said Maus.
The entrepreneurs, in their mid-20s, recently moved to their HOVE home full time from Alaska, where Bakk worked on an offshore oil rig and Maus worked with mentally handicapped clients for a nonprofit.
The couple says their business, Ka‘u Rubbish Disposal LLC, will charge customers $29.99 a month under contract. At first, they will do the work themselves, picking up the garbage, using their truck and trailer, and hauling it to either the Hilo or Puuanahulu landfill.
They hope to grow their business to the point of having employees in the future as the community grows.
Original plans were to put a roll-off to hold garbage on their 1-acre lot, but they since scrapped that plan in favor of hauling the garbage directly to the landfill.
The lot, near the intersection of Tradewind and Kailua boulevards deep within the subdivision, is in a sparsely populated area of 1-acre lots. Their house is at one end of the lot.
There are 4,000 houses and 3,000 people who filled out census forms in the district, Maus said. The young entrepreneurs estimate 300 customers will sustain the business.
“There are a lot of older retired people in the community,” Bakk said.
The Planning Commission gave the couple its unanimous blessing, subject to several conditions.
For example, the operating hours must be limited to no earlier than 7 a.m. and no later than 6 p.m., with a maximum of three business trucks and two trailers on the site. The couple is also barred from placing a sign on their property advertising the service.
“This is a pretty unique business,” said county Land Use Planner Jeff Darrow, adding it should cut down on traffic in the subdivision.
Bakk said it should also cut down on littering and illegal dumping.
“Our goal is to pick up rubbish for customers and transport it conveniently to where it should go,” Bakk said. “There are quite a few vacant lots in Ocean View that are being used as dump sites.”
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.
