Councilmember Pine recently received a call from a Waianae resident who is in need of an additional refuse bin. The resident previously reached out to the City’s Recycling & Refuse Department to request a new bin, but was notified that she wouldn’t be able to receive one until February 2016. The constituent wanted to understand why the process was taking so long.
Councilmember Pine reached out to the Department of Environmental Services (ENV) to find out why residents were not able to receive additional refuse bins in a timely manner. ENV responded and explained that, currently, the City’s inability to issue additional refuse bins is not due to a shortage of carts, but due to collection routes being over capacity. According to ENV, the hold on issuing additional carts to residents is necessary because the number of carts per route have increased to a point where routes are at or over capacity per the UPW contract.
Since then, ENV has completed an audit of all routes island-wide and is in the process of developing a plan for route restructuring. Once this route structure is implemented, they will resume issuing additional carts where routes are not at capacity.
At this time, ENV thanks all residents island-wide for their patience and understanding.
