Schnitzer Steel and smaller metal recyclers would receive a 25 percent discount in refuse disposal fees under a bill passed 7-1 by the Honolulu City Council.
The city Department of Environmental Services opposed Bill 50 (2015), arguing that reinstating a discount in refuse disposal fees for qualified recyclers would cost the city money, not achieve its goal of supporting and promoting recycling activities, and largely help only one company, Schnitzer Steel Hawaii Corp.
“We do oppose dispensing subsidies to a for-profit operation.”
Tim Houghton
City deputy environmental services director, on Bill 50, which he says mostly will benefit one recycling company
Recycling residue, the nonrecyclable byproduct left after processing, is typically disposed of by major recyclers at either Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill or the HPOWER waste-to-energy facility at Campbell Industrial Park.
Those recyclers pay the city $81 per ton plus $25.25 per cubic yard in tipping fees to dispose of the recycling residue. If the bill approved Wednesday is signed by the mayor, they would pay 75 percent of the standard tonnage fee, or $60.75 per ton, when it goes into effect Jan. 1.
The measure now goes to Mayor Kirk Caldwell for consideration. A possible veto would likely be unsuccessful because seven Council members voted for it. The one “no” vote was cast by Councilman Brandon Elefante, while Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi was out of the meeting room at the time of the vote.
Tim Houghton, deputy environmental services director, reminded Council members that the panel voted in 2012 to end any discounts to metal recyclers effective Jan. 1, 2013.
The city offered a discount — which had ranged from 20 percent to 80 percent over the years — beginning in the early 1990s as an incentive to support the growth of the then-fledgling recycling industry. That’s not needed today, Houghton said.
Houghton initially said the proposed discount would cost the city $1.1 million annually in revenue but later corrected the figure to $600,000.
Houghton, without naming Schnitzer, also noted that 89 percent of the benefit derived from the reduced disposal fees would go to one company. “We do oppose dispensing subsidies to a for-profit operation,” he said.
Schnitzer Steel representative Melissa Pavlicek said the bill would benefit not only her company, “but also the hundreds of local businesses (that) do business with Schnitzer.”
Some of Schnitzer’s customers testified in support of the bill.
“This bill would definitely benefit us and all the recyclers on Oahu,” said Allen Evans, president of Refrigerant Recycling. He said he is a city contractor and that lower tipping fees passed on to him would also benefit the city.
