Honolulu’s trash could be shipped off island for 10 years until a new landfill is opened, a potential interim solution to the challenge of what to do with the waste generated by almost 1 million residents and about half a million monthly visitors.

The city has begun exploring the possibility through a request for information, which asks private companies whether they think the concept is feasible.

Roger Babcock, who manages waste for the City and County of Honolulu as director of the Department of Environmental Services, said the solicitation doesn’t commit the city to anything.

But the reality is that the island has few options on how to handle its garbage in the coming years. The lone municipal landfill is scheduled to close in 2028, and the roughly 300,000 tons of trash that go there every year will need some alternative disposal plan.

Officials have yet to name a site for a new landfill, but even if they meet an end-of-year deadline to do so it will take years to get the permits and infrastructure set up to start receiving trash.

That has led the city to reconsider shipping the trash off island, a method it tried over a decade ago but decided was too logistically complicated at the time.

“It’s been more than 10 years. Maybe now something’s changed, and this might be something that could be useful,” Babcock said.

He noted the concept has worked on a smaller scale. Oahu has no hazardous waste disposal system, meaning that hospitals and other places that produce it have to ship it to the mainland.

Seeking Alternatives: Honolulu tries to limit trash that goes to landfills

In 2010, Honolulu started a three-year contract with Hawaiian Waste Systems to transport trash to Washington state as the city expanded capacity at its waste-to-energy plant H-Power.

But that plan failed after an effort to get approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture was derailed after the Yakama Nation and others sued the USDA, saying it had failed to consider environmental impacts and a tribal agreement.

In the meantime, 20,000 tons of garbage sat at Campbell Industrial Park in Kapolei with no place to go. The Hawaii Department of Health fined Hawaiian Waste $40,400 for improper storage of waste, and the city reached an agreement with the company to cancel its contract and instead send the waste to H-Power for incineration.

The city learned from that experience, Babcock said.

“You could have problems at the dock, or with the shipping, or on the other end,” Babcock said, adding that the city wouldn’t want to rely on shipping 100% of its trash as a long-term solution.

The city aims to have many streams of waste disposal. It’s also soliciting services for processing electronic waste, separate services for processing lithium ion batteries – which officials say cause about two fires per day at H-Power – and converting the methane that accumulates under landfills into energy.

But the need to deal with mounting trash at the landfill is gaining urgency as the permit for Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill, which rises above Nanakuli and Ko Olina, expires in 2028 and a plan to open a new landfill somewhere else has faced delays amid objections over where to put it.

Officials were supposed to announce a new landfill location at the end of 2022. Babcock and Mayor Rick Blangiardi instead requested a two-year extension so they could keep looking. Since then, initiatives such as using military land have floundered, leaving the city with few options. 

One idea is to amend a 2020 state law that prevents landfills from being placed in a conservation district or within half a mile of schools, hospitals and residences. But this could be a heavy political lift since most residents don’t want to live near a landfill, fearing negative health impacts. 

Opening a new landfill takes about eight years from start to finish, Honolulu managing director Mike Formby said in March at a City Council budget meeting. That means the new one won’t likely be ready to receive trash by the time the current landfill closes.

Shipping what is known as municipal solid waste elsewhere could be a way to bridge that gap. Most trash on the island goes to H-Power, which incinerates it and uses the power for electricity while sending the ash to the landfill.

The request for information about companies that could transport the trash, which was dated Oct. 7 and ends Nov. 30, said the duration would be 10 years.

“In the event the City’s next landfill is not able to receive waste by March 2028, as an interim measure, until the next landfill can receive waste, the City is considering shipping MSW, and H-Power ash and residue to an alternative disposal location off island,” it said.

With regards to where a new landfill would go, Babcock said the city will meet the end-of-year deadline and will update the City Council on progress during a committee meeting on Thursday.

“That’s something we’re working hard on right now,” he said.