People who get their nickel refunds for recyclable bottles and cans at the Pahoa Recycling and Transfer Station’s HI-5 redemption center will have to go elsewhere because the center closed today “until further notice.”
People who get their nickel refunds for recyclable bottles and cans at the Pahoa Recycling and Transfer Station’s HI-5 redemption center will have to go elsewhere because the center closed today “until further notice.”
The Deposit Beverage Container Program gives funds to Hawaii County to operate certified redemption centers at rural county transfer stations, said Hawaii County Recycling Coordinator Craig Kawaguchi.
The Pahoa Village Road recycling location across from the post office is so near the HI-5 redemption center, he said, that “this center is not eligible for state funding.”
People who want to drop off other materials at the H-5 redemption center will still be able to do so, according George Hayducsko, who oversees the county redemption program.
Although the certified HI-5 redemption center will close, Kawaguchi said, people still will be able to drop off “greenwaste,” non-HI-5 recyclables such as phone books, paper and cardboard, non-H-5 glass, such as jelly jars, and items for the re-use center.
“The certified redemption center is just one component of what’s offered at the Recycling and Transfer Station,” he said.
But those who want their nickels back for empty cans and bottles will need to take them to the Pahoa Village Road location (8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. daily), operated by Business Services Hawaii, or to Keaau-Pahoa Road (8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday), operated by Atlas Recycling.
Department of Environmental Management Director Bill Kucharski said if beverage-container recycling wasn’t available elsewhere, “we would be looking to reopen.”
“But we have another redemption center down the road,” he said.
Jeri Pankey, office manager for Business Services Hawaii, said two employees working under the contract that expires today will keep working within the company’s many other recycling locations islandwide.
Kawaguchi said there are 20 certified redemption centers on the island, including eight privately operated and 12 at county recycling and transfer stations.
Pankey said the flow of people seeking recycling had been quite low at the transfer station, so the Pahoa Village Road service will be able to handle any extra business.
Kawaguchi said more than 3.7 million pounds of HI-5 cans and bottles sold on the Big Island were recycled and kept out of the landfill in 2016. When all Big Island recyclable bottles and cans were tracked, 90.7 percent were recycled.
That percentage, Kucharski said, is “really, really high.”
Statewide, the rate was 72.6 percent. Seven billion containers sold in Hawaii have been recycled since 2005.
The county said the bid to continue operating the Pahoa HI-5 redemption center was too high.
Previously, Kawaguchi said, the county got paid $1,272 a year ($106 a month) under the contract. Business Services Hawaii was the only bidder for a new contract.
The bid would have cost the county $21,223 per year ($1,769 a month) if it had been accepted, Kawaguchi said.
“I don’t want us to be having to spend a lot of money that we have needs for in other places,” Kucharski said.
“Any closure of a facility will be difficult for people to get adjusted too,” Kawaguchi said.
“It will be a change for people but fortunately there is a certified redemption center located in Pahoa Town, about a half mile away.”
Email Jeff Hansel at jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com.