Mountains of metal are building up at the Hilo landfill because the company contracted to recycle automobiles and large appliances has abandoned the project.
The Honolulu - based firm Hawaii Metal Recycling stopped working on the recycling effort nearly a month ago because of a contract dispute, Larry Capellas, head of the county's Solid Waste Division, said Tuesday.
"We had a contractor walk away from a contract," Capellas said.
Since then the vehicles, refrigerators and other appliances have been piling up. Recently the heaps of metal began encroaching onto the transfer station area where the public dumps trash into trailers. That prompted the county to hire a Hilo company to move the material to a temporary holding area elsewhere in the landfill.
The metal had accumulated to the point where it had become obstacles for the public.
Hawaii Metal Recycling has been shipping old car bodies and other metal scrap off-island since the mid - 1990s, Capellas said. The company is in the third year of a five-year contract but apparently decided that it would not continue working under its present terms.
County officials said the company apparently has encountered costs that were higher than expected.
County Purchasing Agent Bill Gray said the county believes its pact with Hawaii Metal Recycling is valid and does not think a renegotiation is warranted.
"We have a contract that they should honor," he said. "We're trying to talk with them to see what we can work out."
The contract includes financial penalties for abandoning the project, but Gray said those would be employed only as a last resort. He said those provisions will be among the things discussed at a meeting with the company today on Oahu.
Capellas said he hopes that the recycling can resume within the next month or two. Until then the vehicles and appliances will be stored at the landfill. Members of the public arriving with such items will be directed to the new holding areas.
According to Capellas, the company shipped 20,900 tons of scrap metal to Honolulu during the 18-month period ending December 2001 at a cost to the county of $394,000.
"The idea is to get as much metal off the island as possible," he said. Tribune Herald