There's nothing wrong with the mayor's plan to fill the blue curbside-recycling bins with green waste instead of bottles and cans as originally intended. So why does it feel so disappointing?

Here's why: We should be doing so much more.

The entire state, and O'ahu in particular, must do everything possible to redirect reusable castoffs toward that reuse, and away from our bulging landfills. Land is so precious that not a single square foot more than necessary should become a dumping ground.

Curbside recycling is the most efficient means of instilling taxpayers with the conservation ethic that residents of an island community must have. It brings the central mission — to throw out as little as possible — to individual homes, where it belongs, and could hold each household accountable, as it should be, for its decision to waste or recycle.

The only way this will work is to make it mandatory, with penalties for mixing trash with recyclables. It's not a politically popular notion. People don't like being forced to recycle. The retailers who sell the beverages don't like being forced to make redemption easier for the public.

So what we have here is a series of halfhearted efforts, at both the state and city levels. The state passed a HI-5 bottle bill, but the retailers who could make it work were not compelled to accept recyclables. So redemption became an exercise in which only the most dedicated are willing to engage.

In addition, the recyclables that have been brought to redemption centers have been cited as a reason that curbside recycling won't be worthwhile: Not enough bottles and cans are left to go into the blue bins, city officials say.

Even if that is true, it's frustrating that Hawai'i can't have a cooperative venture involving county and state authorities, instead of competing initiatives that seem to operate at cross purposes.

The mayor makes a reasonable point that, while bottle-and-can curbside recycling is bogged down in contract disputes and other complications, Honolulu might as well take what steps it can to pull tonnage out of the waste stream. This would relieve the pressure on the overburdened H-POWER plant, which can't handle all combustibles, officials say, so too much of it is diverted to the city dumps.

This may be a good interim idea, but it's no reason to let the drive toward a more comprehensive recycling plan go cold.

After pressing their residents to adopt new recycling habits, many, many other cities have managed the transition. Why can't we?