Municipal trash likely won’t be leaving O‘ahu’s shores until at least early February, according to the company with the contract to ship solid waste to the Mainland.

Hawaiian Waste Systems is seeking an amendment to its compliance agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, because it wants to drop the garbage off at a different port and use a different shipper than originally approved.
City officials were told by company chief executive Jim Hodge early last week that Hawaiian Waste would begin shipping on Tuesday of this week.
Now the timeline has been pushed back for at least another month.
Hodge said his company is still waiting for permit approval of his amended compliance agreement, and that APHIS wants to allow a 30-day public comment period before issuing the OK.
City Environmental Services Director Tim Steinberger said he doesn’t believe there is an immediate health issue with the approximately 15,000 tons of trash that Hawaiian Waste has purchased but not shipped. Some of that trash has been in the company’s hands since the contract began on Sept. 28. The rubbish is compacted, baled and stored in shipping containers near Kalaeloa Harbor.
“The longer this goes on, obviously, the more concerned we’re going to get,” Steinberger said.