Scrap Heap Comes Down As Metal Is Put On Barge

The metal mountains that had been reaching new heights on the land around Maui Scrap Metals are coming down, although it may be several months before the accumulation of junk is hauled away.

Hawaii Metal Recycling, the Oahu-based metal processing company that handles virtually all scrap metals in Hawaii, brought in equipment and workers to begin the process of clearing the excess overflowing from the Waikapu junkyard.

"This is something we're doing for the County of Maui," said Lawrence Kalilikane, a Molokai resident who's operations manager for Hawaii Metal Recycling.

It's also something the company is doing for Maui Scrap Metals and its affiliated Metal Recycling of Maui, which are operating without state solid waste permits because the businesses can't comply with Department of Health standards for their operations.

A major problem has been the overflow of junked cars on sites around the Maui Scrap Metals yard from a period nearly two years ago when Hawaii Metal Recycling shut down because of an equipment failure - leaving Maui Scrap Metals and all other Hawaii metal recyclers with nowhere to send the scrap materials for about six months.

Metal Recycling of Maui needs to clear away the backlog of scraps before it can attempt to renew its permit to handle junked cars and other kinds of scrap metals. But it was hampered by financing shortfalls and a lack of equipment to handle the load.

Kalilikane said Hawaii Metal Recycling recognizes that Maui needs a viable scrap metals operator to handle the loads of junked cars, appliances and other kinds of metals that are among the results of Maui's growth. While there are other businesses handling junked cars, Maui Scrap Metals/Metal Recycling have been the only Valley Isle operators handling the range of scraps produced by the growing community.

It's not entirely altruistic. Kalilikane said the price of scrap metals has been going up and Hawaii Metal Recycling wants to get in as much salable scrap as it can while prices are good.

At the same time, Kalilikane said his company needs to have a viable, capable supplier on Maui shipping scrap metals to Oahu, and handling the other materials that are an inevitable part of the recycling process - old tires, car batteries and fluids found in vehicles, air conditioners and refrigerators.

A scrap metals barge brought in by Hawaii Metal Recycling last week has already left, loaded with somewhere between 4,500 and 5,000 tons of scrap metals, including a number of junked cars that had been crushed but weren't bailed.

To prepare the load, the company brought in its own heavy equipment to cut up cars and other metals at the Maui Scrap Metals/Metal Recycling site and to load the materials on the barge.

An accumulation of junked cars, with no one to process them for salvage, has forced Maui County to set up an unpermitted storage site at the old Waikapu landfill.

A request for proposals for handling junked cars was issued by the county two months ago and officials are now reviewing proposals from several companies. But any contractor processing junked cars for disposal will still need to set up a process for shipping the scrapped vehicles off Maui - with a hope that metals prices will remain high.

Kalilikane said Hawaii Metal Recycling understood the difficulties caused by the accumulation of scraps and the fluctuating prices for recyclable materials that put Maui Scrap Metals/Metal Recycling in an impossible position of needing to clean up its site but without the funds to do it. He said his company is working with Lawrence Koki, manager of Metal Recycling, to clear the Maui businesses to continue their operations legally.

Acknowledging the help, Koki said he still needs to clear out 6,000 to 8,000 tons of "all kinds of steel" that will require at least two more bargeloads to be shipped out. Kalilikane said his company will be working with the Maui operator.

"What we are doing is helping them keep this island as clean as possible," Kalilikane said. Maui News