The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $397,600 to the county of Hawaii and the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board that will improve recycling in West Hawaii.
The West Hawaii project, slated to open this month, is the second phase of the Big Island's recycling pilot project started at Kea'au in East Hawaii. Building on the Kea'au effort, the West Hawaii project will test recycling models and examine if making recycling simpler for homeowners will increase public participation and increase the amount of solid waste diverted from landfills. The West Hawaii project has previously received $223,500 in EPA funding.
The goals of the project are to transform a solid waste transfer station in Kona into one that maximizes recovery of resources; improve on-island composting, and recycling; create jobs and income for island residents; comply with the state's waste management goals; reduce the county's overall solid waste management costs; and create partnerships with the Kona area hotels to increase the amount of recovered materials.
The new recycling center will recycle aluminum, office paper, magazines, plastics, cardboard, mixed paper, inkjet and toner cartridges, newspaper, #1 and #2 plastics and glass. The West HawaiI location will also house a redemption center for the implementation of the state bottle bill.
The recycling and reuse center collected 920 tons of material over 9 months, raising the residential recycling rate at the Kea'au Transfer Station from 2 percent to almost 17 percent. In addition, the center employs special needs workers to convert newspaper into packing materials, and channeling more than 1,200