Few could argue with the intent of Bill 20-62, the measure crafted two years ago that finally passed on a vote by the Honolulu City Council June 1. It would authorize the city to capture food scraps now discarded in the trash and convert them, through composting and other processes, into an enriching soil additive and other byproducts.
As always, though, the devil is in the details of any plan involving city oversight and the contracts that would be issued to get the job done. And there could be numerous devils lurking here, which city officials will need to unmask, before too many costly commitments are made.
By law, Mayor Rick Blangiardi has until Tuesday to veto the bill, but in fact is moving ahead to implement the program, said Roger Babcock, director of the city Department of Environmental Services, in an interview Wednesday.
The reason is not a bad one, if it bears out. The city acknowledges the investment the program would require in added labor costs and equipment — but, Babcock said, there is some revenue potential, too.
Methane. The gas is a fuel to produce energy and income and, he added, a lot more of it could be produced if the organic matter in food waste, currently incinerated in the garbage-to-energy HPOWER plant, is reclaimed and processed efficiently. That’s on top of production of the compost itself.
There are many questions not yet asked or answered in Bill 20-62 itself, which essentially gives the go-ahead for a city food-waste collection project to start by Jan. 1, 2024.
The language in the bill seems flexible on what magnitude of operation must be ready to launch by that date, but Babcock said the administration’s reading is that food-waste collections from all households with curbside service would begin.
“We could ask (the Council) to do a phased-in approach,” Babcock said. Based on the timeline he described, that would a rational way to go.
In any case, the department is starting exploratory planning on what bins to use for food waste, which facilities would receive it for processing, what equipment and costs are involved. In a rough estimate provided to the Council June 1, a full-scale operation could cost about $35 million annually.
That’s not a commitment to take lightly, especially in a city where expenditures have blown past such estimates.
Among the options are using the green bins on an additional pickup day — labor would be a significant cost center — and providing separate bins expressly for food waste, which could simplify the processing.
He said using the already-weekly gray bin collections would complicate operations at HPOWER, where there is no room or capacity for sorting the loads. But this could save on costs at the front end, so it should be examined, too.
A pilot program of up to a year’s length could follow, possibly at the start of next year, involving up to several thousand homes to start, he said. That would be the time to test the participation rate in various communities and the effectiveness of the public education effort.
Education would be key. Ordinary composting can’t handle all food types, so people would need to know whether or how to sort things out to the bin. City officials believe that anaerobic digesters already in place at solid waste treatment plants be employed for some of this processing, but all of that is yet to be determined.
The City Council should call for the results of this planning in the weeks ahead of any pilot program, and recheck the cost-benefit analysis. Harvesting the food waste this island produces seems like a no-brainer, but brainpower is precisely what’s needed if this project is to work.
