Honolulu Looks to Waste Funds to Fill Budget Holes

Lynn Schenkman

Honolulu – Mayor Jeremy Harris and his administration plan to raise collection and tipping fees as part of an overall plan to balance the budget. The proposal would take effect this summer and would eliminate one trash pick-up day. Instead of coming twice a week, haulers would collect trash once, and if residents requested an additional pick-up day each week, they would have to pay $8 per month, which would get them a sticker to put on their rubbish.

The stickers are intended to help haulers by preventing them from having to keep cumbersome lists of who has paid for an additional pick-day and who hasn’t. The administration anticipates about 80,000 homes, approximately half the recipients of the city’s automated collection services, would pay the fee. The administration also has proposed hiking the commercial tipping fee from $72.25 per ton to $84.25 per ton.