Residents and environmental groups were disappointed with a watered-down version of the curbside recycling bill passed unanimously by the City Council yesterday that requires recycling to start on O'ahu by July 2007 and be in full effect a year later.

"It's a bittersweet victory because people are ready for curbside this year," said Jeff Mikulina of the Sierra Club's Hawai'i chapter. "We have a crisis on our island. We are running out of landfill. Why not adopt it this year? There are recycling companies ready to go."

The measure must be signed by Mayor Mufi Hannemann to become law.

"I haven't really sat down with (the mayor) yet, but it seems like a workable bill," said City Environmental Services Director Eric Takamura.

In previous forms the bill would have forced the city administration to establish a curbside recycling program by Jan. 1, 2007. But revisions in the final measure give the city until July 1, 2007, to set up the program for curbside pickup of at least two recyclable items, which could include newspapers, bottles, cans, green waste or food waste. The bill allows another year to add two more items.

The final bill also allows the mayor to create a task force to help guide the program and says the curbside recycling program "must be fully supported by the council and the administration in the city's annual budget."

"That's why I think the bill is more workable," said Takamura, who previously opposed the measure.

PRESSURE'S ON MAYOR

The vote marked the second time in two weeks that the City Council has moved to put pressure on the administration to address waste and environmental issues. On Feb. 15, the council approved a bill that would require the city to close the Waimanalo Gulch landfill by May 2008 even though no new landfill or waste alternative has been identified.

Environmentalists have been calling for curbside recycling for years, but the city program has been delayed time after time since it was proposed in 2003 by the previous mayor, Jeremy Harris. Concerns about the state's bottle deposit law, legal challenges to the city's bidding process and differences between the city and the United Public Workers union led to some of the delays.

The city began a recycling pilot program in Mililani, but suspended it in August 2004 after the state Labor Relations Board ruled that the city improperly continued the project after an agreement with the UPW expired.

In October, Hannemann canceled plans to begin an islandwide program.

Takamura said after evaluating curbside recycling the administration wants to emphasize expanded pickup of green waste such as yard clippings rather than focus on papers and containers.

Hannemann is expected to detail those plans on Saturday.

'MORE TIME IS FAIR'

Councilman Rod Tam said the additional time to implement the program and the task force element were added to Bill 72 "so recycling becomes more doable."

Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi agreed with the time extension, saying the Mililani pilot recycling project showed the system was not cost-effective.

"Giving the administration more time is fair," she said.

Takamura told the council that the administration is promoting recycling by using school containers, burning waste at the H-power facility and expanding the bulky item pickup program. He said including the 600,000 tons of waste burned for power, the city recycles about 1.1 million tons of waste a year out of an estimated 1.6 million tons of trash.

Expanding green waste pickups is expected to add an extra 100,000 tons a year to that total, he said.

But Betty Gearen, who brought in a petition with 1,500 signatures of residents supporting starting curbside recycling as soon as possible, said burning trash is not recycling.

"H-Power is not recycling and should not be thrown in with those totals," Gearen said. She said the ash is buried in the municipal landfill and no research has been done to document any environmental problems that may cause.

Gearen asked council members to reconsider and implement the curbside recycling program quickly.

"We want real recycling," she said. "Green waste is not the problem."

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com.