Garbage day may come twice a week again for Kalapana residents thanks to a new County Council proposal.
Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz will introduce a bill at this week’s meeting of the Committee on Infrastructure and Assets that would require all county solid waste facilities to be open at least two days a week.
While the proposal is nonspecific and applies to “any facility used for the disposal, collection and transfer of household solid waste” on the island, Kierkiewicz said it is intended to be a direct boon to users of the Kalapana Transfer Station, which she said currently is the only one in the county that operates only one day a week.
“Since at least the pandemic, the Kalapana station has gone from two days a week to one day, and it’s not even a full 12-hour day of service,” Kierkiewicz said, adding the county has a duty to provide equitable access to essential services for all its residents.
“I’ve tried to get the (Department of Environmental Management) to commit to a second day, but they’ve said there isn’t enough trash there for it to be worth it,” Kierkiewicz continued. “But folks are having to take their trash elsewhere — to Pahoa, to Hilo when the Kalapana station is closed — so I don’t think we should be looking at those numbers at all.”
While other transfer stations are still open at least twice weekly, DEM has on occasion had to cut back on available days at several facilities to account for staffing and resource shortages. Kierkiewicz said her bill also will provide a safety net for other communities to prevent their own garbage services from dropping to unreasonable levels.
She also said that having county garbage facilities more readily available to users could cut down on cases of illegal dumping or leaving trash at closed facilities.
“(DEM) has said they’re looking into studies, into other solutions for the problem,” Kierkiewicz said. “I say, that’s great, let’s see those solutions already. … It’s not a sexy topic, but it’s a critical service for our residents.”
According to DEM, the Kalapana transfer station processed about 36 tons of waste in January and 32 tons in February. By comparison, the Pahoa Transfer Station, which is open daily, processed 352 tons in January and 270 tons last month.
DEM Director Ramzi Mansour said in a statement Friday that his office is reviewing Kierkiewicz’s proposal and working on “(getting) feedback and communication from the impacted stakeholders.”
The Kalapana Transfer Station currently is only open on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The other 20 transfer stations on the island all have between three and seven scheduled days of operation each week.