Question: While visiting my daughter in Brooklyn over the holidays I noticed that they have curbside recycling for kitchen scraps. They put food waste in the same bin as their green waste (which mainly comes from plants inside their apartment, although they do also have a tiny yard). We have curbside recycling at home in Hawaii Kai but our food waste goes in the gray bin with the regular household trash — it’s not composted with yard clippings in the green bin. The blue cart is for mixed recyclables, such as plastic, not food waste. Please ask the city about this. It seems Honolulu could do better.
Answer: You’ll be happy to hear that in about two months the city is scheduled to launch a pilot project called G.R.O.W (Green Recycling Organic Waste) that addresses this issue. “If you live in Waipahu, Nanakuli, Hawai‘i Kai, Mililani, Kailua, or Kalihi, and you currently receive City and County of Honolulu automated curbside collection services, you can start adding food scraps and wasted food to your green compost cart on April 1, 2026! In the future, the City will expand this program islandwide,” according to a brief notice on Honolulu’s Department of Environmental Services website, which promises more details to come.
Unlike New York City’s curbside composting program, which is mandatory, the Oahu test will be optional for residential customers along the pilot program’s automated three-cart collection routes, although those customers will be strongly encouraged to participate.
ENV is planning broad public outreach well before the start date to explain the pilot program and provide information to help participants easily manage the disposal of food waste, Jenn Boneza, an ENV spokesperson, said by telephone Tuesday. For example, she said, participants will be encouraged to save kitchen scraps in a container in their refrigerator or freezer and then place the scraps freely in their green cart the night before collection, to reduce odor from unbagged kitchen waste lingering in the cart too long. Another suggestion is to layer food scraps with yard clippings in the cart, she said. No garbage bags, plastics or liquids should be placed in the green cart, she said, promising detailed instructions as the start date gets closer.
We’ll stress that this pilot program isn’t set to begin until April 1, so residential customers in the included neighborhoods shouldn’t place food scraps in their green bins yet. For now, kitchen waste should continue to go with other bagged household trash in the gray bin, the contents of which are burned at the H-POWER trash-to-energy plant at Oahu’s Campbell Industrial Park.
On a related note, Honolulu County requires that owners of restaurants and other food establishments over a certain size separate and recycle food waste. Read more about that law at 808ne.ws/4pPADQq.
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As for the NYC’s Department of Sanitation’s mandatory curbside composting program for residential customers, you can read more about it at nyc.gov/curbsidecomposting.
Mahalo
I want to say mahalo to the public libraries for being enjoyable places to take both my toddler and my grandmother, for whom I provide daily care — both of my parents still work. All three of us enjoy going to the library and these outings don’t cost anything beyond the price of gas. While my daughter and I enjoy whatever free preschool activity is scheduled that day, my grandma browses for books and sometimes there are activities for adults as well. Also, I find that by visiting libraries around the island I am getting a better idea about different Oahu neighborhoods, as my husband and I start thinking about buying a house or condo. — Grateful resident
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 2-200, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
Dining and Cooking