The disruption of a convenient recycling system that has prevented tons of glass from ending up in Oahu’s landfill was years in the making, and it’s a shame that the state failed to step up to cover a predictable funding gap. State, county and industry officials must work together now to quickly forge a financially sustainable solution.

In the interim, restaurants and bars are throwing away nondeposit wine and liquor bottles that recycling companies previously would have collected and shipped to the mainland for reuse. (The disrupted program dealt with nondeposit glass containers not covered by the state’s HI-5 recycling program, which continues unabated; residential customers who discard glass and plastic in curbside blue bins also are unaffected.)

Recycling the nondeposit bottles had become second nature for many dining and drinking establishments, and now that momentum is thwarted. Our island community cannot afford to interrupt, even temporarily, good habits that reduce the amount of rubbish on Oahu, especially when those environmentally friendly habits are practiced by major garbage producers such as restaurants and bars.

The issue came to a head when the city government halved the amount it pays recycling companies to collect the nondeposit glass, which also include pickle jars and other containers, from 9 cents to 4.5 cents a pound.

The city, a middleman in what should be fully a state operation, did so because there’s not enough money coming in from the state to cover costs; the shortfall this fiscal year is projected at about $600,000.

Recycling companies responded by refusing to take the glass, saying the low reimbursement leaves no room for profit in an expensive process that involves shipping most of the collected glass to the mainland, where it is recycled for various uses, including as paving material called "glassphalt." The result is that thousands of tons of nondeposit glass that once could have been recycled instead will be burned at the H-POWER plant at Campbell Industrial Park and the resulting "noncombustible residue" — glass doesn’t burn very well — will be dumped at the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill.

This outcome is unacceptable over the long term.

The Hawaii Food Industry Association has a large role to play in the eventual solution, having successfully blocked previous legislative attempts to raise the 1.5-cent per-bottle advance disposal fee the state collects from those bringing the full bottles into the state. An increase is in order, and would help fund the cost of the recycling program.

The association warns that any increase would be passed on to the consumer, but that seems fair. The people generating the trash — by consuming the wine, liquor, pickles and other goods that come in the jars and bottles — should pay a little more to properly dispose of the empties.

The state Legislature has tried in vain to address the funding disparity. This past session resulted in a Senate resolution that offers some hope. It directs the state Department of Health, which oversees the state’s recycling programs, to meet with all stakeholders and determine if there are more cost-effective ways to recycle nondeposit glass. The resolution also seeks an audit of the state’s recycling programs and asks the auditor to examine whether there are feasible local alternatives to shipping the glass out of state, such as the conversion of glass to sand, landfill cover or paving material.

But neither the findings of the task force nor the auditor are expected much before the 2015 session begins. Gap funding from the state is warranted in the meantime, lest an environmentally sound policy and the good habits it instilled shatter like the empty wine and liquor bottles piling up in garbage bins outside restaurants throughout the city.