Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Recycling Garden/Kitchen Waste

Art worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago and really, really took his work seriously. We Recycle everything allowed, Reduce our garbage as much as we can and Reuse plastic bags, containers, plates for our family pot luck parties.

We have so much room left over every week that our neighbor often adds their garbage to our bin.

This is why it bothered Art that we couldn't add kitchen peelings and other green waste into our green landscape recycling bin. I even called a couple of years ago and asked the department if we could add things like vegetable peelings and such to the green waste and they said you could only add landscape materials. 

Uuummm.... So if a banana or mango fall off your tree, you can add it to the bin, but not if it's from the kitchen? 😏

Well, I just looked it up again before writing this post and found this with AI. It was also reported on the KHON news.

In the City and County of Honolulu, it is acceptable to put kitchen vegetable peelings and other food scraps in the green landscape recycling bin, but this is a new policy that only became effective in April 2025. The expansion of the program was signed into law in November 2023.  

I've been drying out the kitchen waste a bit before adding it to the bin just to prevent it from getting too yucky.

And Art? He's very happy.

POSTSCRIPT 1: However, I decided to check out this information before I posted it on my blog. I looked it up online at opala.org and that's not what it says. What the heck?!?

So I sent an email to their Refuse Division.


POSTSCRIPT 2:

Wow! I got a response from the City and County within half an hour.

Aloha Kay,

 Thank you for your message. The City and County of Honolulu is not accepting food waste in the green bins quite yet. Due to permitting and construction delays, we had to push back our plans. Currently, we are only accepting yard waste in the green bins. 

We are currently working towards incorporating food waste into the curbside collection. Right now, we are projecting to start the pilot program in certain areas on Oahu in April 2026. 

Mahalo,

The Refuse Division

AU

I guess this is a lesson where you need to remember that AI is not always correct.



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20 comments:

  1. Val EwingSeptember 17, 2025 at 1:48 AM

    I have to agree, there should be a place for kitchen refuse to be composted!
    I don't often read the AI stuff when I look something up, I usually go a bit further.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 17, 2025 at 1:58 AM

    We have a green bin recycling program for our kitchen scraps separate from our yard waste collection. You could compost but that is another project. -Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. jabblogSeptember 17, 2025 at 2:10 AM

    We have separate green waste and kitchen waste, though we put tea leaves and coffee grounds on the plants.

    ReplyDelete
  4. EdSeptember 17, 2025 at 2:29 AM

    We have always just created a compost pile somewhere on our property and dumped all our kitchen scraps there. We have a compost bucket that sits on the kitchen counter that we put those wastes in so we only have to dump the bucket maybe once a week on the pile. Then whenever we need composted soil for our garden or houseplants, we just go out there with a shovel and grab some from the bottom of the pile.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousSeptember 17, 2025 at 4:28 AM

      We do the same thing, a small compost pile for kitchen scraps (except any meat or dairy products). We add some yard waste occasionally, and a few shovels of soil when we have some "extra". The compost at the bottom of the pile is lovely. Really depends on the size and configuration of the garden I guess.
      Ceci

      Delete
  5. AnvilcloudSeptember 17, 2025 at 2:34 AM

    Our little community and rural region doesn’t collect green. They do collect yard waste twice a year if properly bagged, and there is a yard waste dump site at other times. Bigger communities, like Toronto, do have green bins.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kay G.September 17, 2025 at 2:49 AM

    Please tell Art that Richard and I are also into recycling! We also re use or re purpose things, if we can. Also, when you are able to compost your veggie/fruit peelings, you shouldn't do so with citrus. Just something that I did but stopped after reading that. Investigate for me and see if that's right. Happy recycling! "If you're not recycling, you're throwing it all away". (None of our neighbors recycle, they have tons of garbage piled high in their bins!)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kathy GSeptember 17, 2025 at 3:37 AM

    I used to compost, but there's no way to do that in our condo. However, I save vegetable scraps in the freezer, turn them into broth when the bag gets full, then take the spent scraps to Youngest Son's house for his compost pile.

    ReplyDelete
  8. dkzodySeptember 17, 2025 at 4:01 AM

    Fresno has just begun in the past year to accept food refuse in the green can. I can use composting bags that I get when I buy produce at Whole Foods. I hope the other grocery stores will start using the composting bags for produce rather than the usual plastic. San Mateo has done the composting in the green can for the whole time the kids have lived here, over 20 years now.

    ReplyDelete
  9. DrumMajorSeptember 17, 2025 at 5:06 AM

    My place must be trashy, and needs to collect at least cans. My son has an 8x8x3' compost bin at the back of his yard. They throw most everything in there. From the kitchen counter-top jar, to the 5 gallon bucket with a lid in the garage, it eventually makes it's way to the back. It Makes a lovely compost that the parental units grab too. He once had cantelope start growing in it. Linda in Kansas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KaySeptember 19, 2025 at 5:30 PM

      I wish we had space to put a compost area on our property too.

      Delete
  10. MarciaSeptember 17, 2025 at 5:21 AM

    I think in Vermont it's the law that food scraps be recycled. Not here in NH. We have a compost bin we use but meat scraps go into the trash. We have recycle bins for paper, plastic & aluminum, and glass and metal. When we arrive at recycle center we separate the glass and metal. We also recycle lightweight plastic bags there.

    ReplyDelete
  11. RianSeptember 17, 2025 at 6:58 AM

    Here we have recycle separate from normal garbage... but that is all. Leftover food here usually goes to the ferals... but we did have a compost area at one time. Maybe we should start one again.

    ReplyDelete
  12. MargaretSeptember 17, 2025 at 7:39 AM

    I'm ashamed that I'm not more up on this. Older Daughter does a lot with compost which has unfortunately attracted rats. No good deed goes unpunished!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Honolulu AuntySeptember 17, 2025 at 9:33 AM

    You just reminded me that I need to check on my worm bin. I have been neglecting those poor buggahs.

    ReplyDelete
  14. RedSeptember 17, 2025 at 12:27 PM

    Good on you for being persistent in finding what is right. They give you a rough time.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Linda ReederSeptember 17, 2025 at 1:16 PM

    I'm glad you checked, but I'm not glad the food waste is not recycled there. Our green bins say "Food and Yard Waste" It all goes in the bin. With that and recycling, we have very little garbage.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Asep HaryonoSeptember 17, 2025 at 4:51 PM

    Its awesome and I think the green landscape recycling bin policy in your area can be adopted here in Indonesia. Its a goo idea to keeping our planet green and healthy. Why not

    Greetings from Indonesia

    ReplyDelete
  17. Jenn JilksSeptember 18, 2025 at 6:02 AM

    Not only is AI not always correct, it can be dangerous!

    ReplyDelete
  18. DebbieSeptember 18, 2025 at 7:24 AM

    in my town we recycle the "regular" things and we have stayed with it in our home and are very mindful of it. we have a recycling day when garbage trucks come and pick up the different bins. that is nice for us and i think it encourages people to participate!! i enjoyed reading about what you are doing. i know we should be doing more, i really need to start to compost food scraps. i shutter to think about the world we are leaving behind for our children when we go!!

    ReplyDelete

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