Recycling

Hey, thanks for the invite! Can we also add 'recycling area' to our wish list? Mahalo.

The first Google entry for "condo recycling" is the Honolulu Department of Environmental Services:

http://www.envhonolulu.org/solid_waste/Recycling_for_condos_and_apartments.html

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there is a list of condos in the neighborhood that initiated their own recycling program. Might be worthwhile to speak with some of the residents/management for ideas, as well as pitfalls to avoid:

Honolulu Tower 531-9090
Chateau Waikiki 946-3677
Harbor Square 537-2637
Hokulua Townhouses 239-9666
Makani Kai Marina 235-4416
Nauru Tower 592-1200
Royal Capitol Plaza 591-8823
Tropic Gardens 732-3338

Recycling is a great idea. We should have some recycling bins in the trash room downstairs. There's lots of room, and it's only a matter of making the extra trip. We can offset the cost of our refuse bill and might even have something left over at the end of the month.

Perhaps something to consider are recycling bins in or around high-traffic areas that can accommodate them, e.g. a newspaper bin in the mailroom.



Other items include:

Batteries - car batteries, equipment batteries, flashlight
Beer and Wine bottles, jars, other glass items
Paper and plastic bags (reuse first if possible)
Magazines, Newspapers, phone-books
Plastic Bottles, Plastic Containers
Cans and tins
Juice/soup/milk cartons

We can decide what to recycle and where.

Just a quick calculation...

If each person in the building averages 1-2 plastic bottles a week and...

there are 2 residents in each unit...

with 350 units in the building...

that comes out to 350 x 2 x 1.5 bottles ~ 1000 bottles / week.

At 5 cents a bottle, that's $50 every week.

Shouldn't this be enough to maintain a weekly pickup that pays for itself AND simultaneously reduce our trash bill?

The numbers do seem to favor a sustainable recycling program. The hard part is getting enough people to agree on HOW we should go about it. There was discussion about placing bins in the trash room on each floor, but smells, roaches, liquids are a concern. We could also have bins in the trash room downstairs, but are people willing to haul it down on a regular basis? (I think so) Recycling is just a matter of overcoming initial inertia and taking action.