The Kauaʻi County Council wants a curbside recycling program on the island to divert waste from its single landfill.
The Kekaha Landfill is projected to be full by November 2030, and a vertical expansion project is underway. Recyclable material is brought to the landfill, meaning a recycling program could potentially reduce how much waste makes its way there.
A resolution the council passed on Wednesday urged the County of Kauaʻi administration to implement a curbside recycling program.
Councilmember Fern Holland, who co-introduced the measure, has advocated for the program for years.
“ We're asking, is curbside recycling a good investment in the future?” Holland said during a presentation she made on the program. “Is it of value? Fire departments, police, roads — all of these things have costs, sometimes exorbitant costs. For goodness’ sakes, it costs us $1 million to build a bathroom in a county park right now. But none of (these) are evaluated that way, because they create a public value. The kids need to use the bathroom. I argue recycling is the same.”
Her argument came after county officials said a curbside recycling program would be too costly while providing little actual value.
Kauaʻi’s Solid Waste Division Chief Allison Fraley also presented on a curbside recycling program during Wednesday’s hearing. But she said the division’s total budget is $31 million, and that setting up the new program would cost $15.5 million a year. Building a materials recovery facility to sort and process recyclables on the island would cost $57 million.
She said that 43% of the county’s waste — about 75,000 tons total produced in fiscal year 2025 — is already diverted, and a curbside program would grow that by just 2%.
“I couldn't agree more that having curbside recycling would provide convenience that would increase the recycling for these specific materials,” Fraley said. “However, it's the cost of this program and the fact that we're on a small island and would have to build a facility to process these materials that make the cost exorbitant.”
Proponents of the program contest the program’s costs and benefits presented by Fraley.
The county did successfully conduct a pilot curbside recycling program in 2011. It also established a “pay-as-you-throw” program in 2014 that provides financial incentives to residents to throw away less trash and recycle.
The PAYT program was created by consultants with three phases in mind, though it hasn’t progressed through the second phase, which includes the curbside recycling program.
Council Chair Mel Rapozo, who co-introduced the resolution along with Holland, said, “When you do phase one and you don't do phase two and phase three, how do you expect to get the results that we paid the consultant to tell us what we needed to do? I think that's what this thing is saying — let's go back and finish what we started.”
