Oʻahu residents with three-cart curbside collection can now put food waste in their green compost carts after the City and County of Honolulu announced Tuesday that residential compost services will expand islandwide starting Oct. 1.
Here’s how it works: residents can include fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, bones, coffee grounds, eggs, eggshells, rice, bread, leftovers and spoiled food in their green compost carts. Bags are not allowed due to concerns about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
The city advises freezing food scraps and waste until the night before or morning of collection day, layering food waste with green waste in the green cart, sprinkling baking soda or coffee grounds and keeping the lid closed to contain odors.
“Putting our food scraps and leftovers in our green carts is a simple step that we can all take to make a real and meaningful difference," Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said in a statement. "GROW (Green Recycling Organic Waste) is an innovative program that just makes sense, and we are thrilled that our creative team at ENV (Department of Environmental Services) is bringing this wonderful idea to life.”
Hawaiian Earth Recycling was awarded the city contract to collect and process compost. According to the company's website, Hawaiian Earth Recycling is the largest producer of compost in Hawaiʻi and recycles more than 140,000 tons annually.
The City and County of Honolulu allocated $13.9 million toward green waste recycling services in 2026. Approximately 160,000 single-family homes are in the three-cart curbside recycling program, according to ENV. Residents who are not in the three-cart curbside recycling program can drop off food scraps at the Hawaiian Earth Recycling facility in Wahiawā.
Henry Gabriel, recycling program branch chief for ENV, said in recent meetings with neighborhood boards that the GROW program aligns with the city’s goal of 95% landfill diversion by 2030.
For example, one of the action items in the 2019 Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan Update is to “investigate the potential for different ways to process or collect food waste.” At the time, Cascadia Consulting Group found that paper, food waste, green waste, wood and plastic film and wrap made up 59.1% of the waste stream accepted by H-POWER and Waimānalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill (WGSL) with food waste generating 20.1% of that waste.
The management plan also tied goals to the Aloha+ Challenge to reduce waste by 70% by 2030 and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency’s 2015 goal to reduce food waste by half by 2030.
According to ENV, 77% of Oʻahu’s solid waste was diverted from the WGSL through its recycling and waste-to-energy programs in 2023. The ENV stated that food waste makes up 60,000 tons of garbage on Oʻahu each year, and Blangiardi said Tuesday that GROW could "reduce Oʻahu’s waste stream" by 20%.
ENV Deputy Director Daniel Brieck stated in the announcement: “Every pound of food scraps you include in your green compost cart is a pound that doesn’t end up in our landfill. Everything we compost instead of sending to H-POWER is a win because food scraps and wet materials rob energy from the burn process. Keeping them out of the waste stream helps H-POWER run more efficiently, and that benefits all of us.”
So far this year, ENV has launched the GROW program in April in Kailua, Hawaiʻi Kai, Mililani, Nānākuli, Waipahu and Kalihi.
In the six neighborhoods that piloted GROW over the last six months, about 15% of residents participated in the pilot, according to ENV Refuse Chief Josh Nagashima
Nagashima stated that “results from our pilot phase have been promising” with a “significant reduction in contamination so far.”
Darsha Lee, of Mililani, told Aloha State Daily that she has been putting food waste in the green bin when her own compost is too full.
“I think it’s a good program,” she said. “Our food waste is a huge thing and we shouldn’t be sending that to landfills.”
Donna Wong, of Kailua, said that she heard of the program at her neighborhood board meeting but never received additional information from the city. She did not participate in the compost program because she composts at home.
Greg Knudsen, of Hawaiʻi Kai, attended an informational meeting about the program and heard concerns about storing food waste.
“I don’t have room in my freezer to store things,” he said. He added that the city didn’t clarify how the program would significantly reduce food waste in the landfill when food waste already decomposes.
Haley Lehman can be reached at haley@alohastatedaily.com.
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