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The City and County of Honolulu is discussing acquiring additional land to extend the life of the current municipal landfill, city spokesman Scott Humber said. The facility was due to close in 2028 but remains the only viable option after 11 other sites were rejected. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2024)<\/p>\n
Despite recycling and other reduction efforts, around 1.2 million tons of solid waste were generated on O\u02bbahu in the 2025 fiscal year, according to the latest data available from the city\u2019s Department of Environmental Services.\u00a0Every year a quarter of that \u2013\u2013 280,000 tons of construction and development waste and ash from H-Power \u2013\u2013 ends up being buried at Waim\u0101nalo Gulch.<\/p>\n
Waim\u0101nalo Gulch was scheduled to close in 2028, but after a fruitless search for an alternative location, the City and County of Honolulu is now discussing extending the working life of the landfill<\/a>. City spokesman Scott Humber said that 3.7 acres of land is available to extend the landfill\u2019s capacity for the near future, while other options are explored.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOther than the expansion of Waim\u0101nalo Gulch \u2026 there is no other place,\u201d Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi told the Senate Ways and Means Committee earlier this week.<\/p>\n Council member Andria Tupola, who represents District 1 where the current landfill is located, is not on board with that approach. Instead of spending money to expand the landfill where it is or relocate it, she says it is time to invest in closing it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are now at a point where so many sites have been excluded that it is impossible for us to re-site the landfill,\u201d she told Civil Beat. \u201cSo knowing that it\u2019s impossible, ending it is the only path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Tupola wants to establish a council working group to investigate closure options, motivated by a recent city funded overseas trip during which she inspected waste disposal technology in China, Denmark and Spain. All three countries are less dependent on landfills, in large part because of more sophisticated incinerators.<\/p>\n Landfill Integral To County Waste Plans<\/p>\n The Westside landfill has been a political hot potato for decades, and \u201cevery mayor since 1990 has said they will move the landfill, but they didn\u2019t say they\u2019d end it,\u201d Tupola said.<\/p>\n As she envisions it, the working group would include representatives of the city\u2019s environmental services department and the state health department, as well as the recycling industry, the city\u2019s H-Power waste incinerator, unions and others.<\/p>\n The members would consider the available technologies for recycling, diverting and converting solid waste, and \u201cevaluate the feasibility and practical realities of ending landfill dependency,\u201d according to the resolution<\/a> she introduced in the Honolulu City Council Jan. 12. <\/p>\n A council vote is likely in the next week and the group could be up and running not long after,\u00a0Tupola said Tuesday. It would report back within a year.<\/p>\n However, meeting any goals it set \u2014 including further reducing and repurposing the thousands of tons of waste that end up in the landfill every year \u2014 would take far longer.<\/p>\n \u201cExperts I\u2019m talking to say even with a very, very ambitious plan we would still need eight years \u2026 and that\u2019s if nothing goes wrong,\u201d Tupola said.<\/p>\n Until then, \u201clandfills remain a necessary component in Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s solid waste system, particularly for emergency situations and for materials that can\u2019t be reduced, reused or recycled,\u201d according to Roger Babcock, the director of the Department of Environmental Services.<\/p>\n State Group Proposed<\/p>\n Senate Bill 2485<\/a>, introduced by Sen. Mike Gabbard, would establish a similar working group within the governor\u2019s office to identify policies to further reduce solid waste statewide, not just on O\u02bbahu. <\/p>\n Both groups would weigh current solid waste regulations, analyze the costs and environmental impacts of alternative technologies for processing waste, and assess what markets are available for new products from repurposed solid waste.<\/p>\n Gabbard said he introduced the bill after learning about Tupola\u2019s council resolution for a municipal working group.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re both from the Westside,\u201d he said, \u201cand it makes sense because we\u2019ll end up with the best results for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Tupola also welcomed the potential for collaboration between the two working groups, which she said could head off potential conflicts.<\/p>\n In April, the state Legislature passed House Bill 969<\/a>, which prevented landfills on the state\u2019s most productive agricultural land. That blocked a Honolulu plan<\/a> to relocate the city landfill to Wahiaw\u0101 and over O\u02bbahu\u2019s main aquifer. <\/p>\n \u201cI think that we need to be realistic that any proposal that we move forward has to be in unison with what the state and the Legislature want,\u201d Tupola said, \u201cbecause otherwise we\u2019re going to have exactly what just happened with the Wahiaw\u0101 proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n Underinvestment In H-Power<\/p>\n Tupola said that her recent study trip convinced her that technology had evolved enough that it was time to discuss further reducing Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s reliance on landfills for solid waste disposal.<\/p>\n Denmark landfilled less than 1% of its solid waste in 2022, and the European Union has set a target for countries to send less than 10% of their waste to landfills by 2035.<\/p>\n So far, no U.S. state has been able to get close to the Danish level of diversion. Connecticut has made the most progress, but reporting shows<\/a> it has achieved that primarily by trucking the waste to landfills in Ohio and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Honolulu diverted two-thirds of its waste from landfills in the 2024 financial year, the highest in the state and around twice the national rate, according to a 2025 legislative report<\/a> from the state Department of Health\u2019s Office of Solid Waste Management.<\/p>\n But the DOH report makes clear that diversion in Hawai\u02bbi, and other states, has largely plateaued, and remains highly dependent on incineration. <\/p>\n In addition to improving green waste recycling, improvements in the amount of waste diverted from the Waim\u0101nalo Gulch landfill \u201cwill be achieved by way of increased throughput at the city\u2019s H-Power waste-to-energy operations,\u201d according to the Department of Environmental Services<\/a> website.<\/p>\n Waim\u0101nalo Gulch also remains the only permitted repository<\/a> for the ash produced by H-Power.<\/p>\n Tupola said the technology at the plant had not kept pace with developments in mass incineration, and new investment is long overdue because \u201cthe way H-Power is running right now, it cannot do what it\u2019s supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Limitations with pre-sorting materials that end up being incinerated at the H-Power facility lead to breakdowns, she said. She is talking with H-Power\u2019s operator about expanding the facility to nearby properties to facilitate more recycling or reuse.<\/p>\n The company that runs the facility, Reworld Honolulu LLC, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Exploring Other Technologies<\/p>\n Technologies that the working groups could consider based on alternatives<\/a> used in Canada, Japan and China for two decades include Plasma Arc Gasification<\/a>, a process that burns waste at between 12,000 and 15,000 degrees Fahrenheit \u2014 six times higher than the temperatures used at H-Power. The byproduct is a non-toxic aggregate that can be incorporated into construction materials such as masonry and paving.<\/p>\n Honolulu looked at Plasma Arc Gasification<\/a> several decades ago when the technology was still in early stages. Since then it has become more established, is less reliant on landfills and also produces less pollution.<\/p>\n A small private startup based in Kailua, Aloha Carbon<\/a>, is testing alternative technologies that could convert solid waste, including construction debris, into fertilizers, recycled building materials and carbon credits.<\/p>\n Tupola said that in China, she saw building materials such as bricks that included recycled ash produced by incineration.<\/p>\n![\"H-Power](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/240828-kf-Tour-De-Trash-328-1024x682.jpg\")
Over 2,000 tons of municipal solid waste are processed every day at the H-Power plant run by Reworld Honolulu LLC for the city and county. Reducing the waste deposited in O\u02bbahu\u2019s landfill will depend on improving the incineration technology since the landfill is the only legal repository for the ash waste from H-Power. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2024)<\/p>\n![\"Municipal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-26-at-4.11.50\u202fPM.png\")
Municipal Waste Streams (MWS) on O\u02bbahu for 2019-2025, according to the Department of Environmental Services. The two shaded segments at the bottom of each column represent the 25% of solid waste that continues to end up in the Waim\u0101nalo Gulch landfill. (Screenshot: Department of Environmental Services.)<\/p>\n![\"Waste](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-29-at-1.26.30\u202fPM-1024x243.png\")
The state\u2019s diversion rates have plateaued over the past four years, and are heavily reliant on incineration, according to the state Department of Health. (Screenshot: Hawai\u02bbi Department of Health\/2025)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SimonPietri2-1024x617.jpg\")
Joelle Simonpietri and staff at the site of the Aloha Sustainable Materials Recycling and Fertilizer Facility. The Kailua startup is testing a range of technologies to convert solid waste to keep it out of landfills. (Thomas Heaton\/Civil Beat\/2024)<\/p>\n
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