2018-06-27 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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haulers to call when they need to schedule a disposal. The land line that was used was not efficient because the County employees were usually out in the field. Now that there is a cell number, haulers can call or leave text messages at, and much of the aggravation has been resolved. He will be meeting with the haulers again in July, as there are issues on how the waste is received. DEM is looking at machines used in other facilities to remove some of the grease, rocks, and other debris so that discharge time can be cut from 40 minutes to 20 minutes. • Bill 154 regarding abandoned vehicles was spoken about earlier. • Transfer station issues. The Solid Waste Division gets about $19 million per year from the General Fund. The transfer stations account for almost 50% of all the waste that is disposed of in the landfill, and it is done 100% at County cost. DEM will be looking at this, as they are spending a lot of their money here. They know there are commercial businesses that are illegally using the transfer stations. There is a law they are not supposed to utilize transfer stations, but there is no penalty other than a misdemeanor citation. So DEM is looking at modifying or coming up with programs that will allow them to control the use and reduce the County’s cost for these services. The County Council has a special session on the GET on Friday, and if it does not pass DEM will be making cuts. There is at least a $5 million shortfall, and DEM will be making a contribution in coming up with money to fix the hole. Chair Bennett said a question came to him by way of a constituent, who asked how much of the mixed recycling is getting sorted and recycled. Director Kucharski said they have contracts to take the mixed bin waste. The material goes to the contractors, and he does not have data on what is done with it. The recycling program is a waste diversion program for DEM. Now with China not taking certain things, it will be expensive because people will have to sort through. DEM currently pays about $150 per ton to deal with the recyclable materials. The recycling companies ship the material to Honolulu, and from there it goes to the mainland or China. It is difficult to say what happens with the material, since the state does not have recycling facilities. Chair Bennett said the constituent had looked at Table 7 of the Director’s Informational Report, where it says “total tons diverted, 0.” She had interpreted that to mean none of it is getting recycled. Director Kucharski said the sort station is not a transfer station. It is the station at the Hilo landfill where people come in and dump material rather than going on to the landfill face. Anything that would be diverted would be C&D material that is too big to be transported up to the landfill face. The table simply shows what comes in at the Hilo landfill, and the material is transported from there to the landfill face. He can get the numbers for the diversion and will bring them to the next meeting. The sort station is misnamed. Historically a transfer station is