It's always a relief to have alternatives in dealing with O'ahu's seemingly insurmountable trash problem.

Now, off-island shipping might be added to the mix. At first opposed by city officials who were loathe to lose revenue from fees that private haulers pay to dump in the municipal landfill, progress is now being made toward a rational compromise.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows local governments to dictate where their trash gets dumped. And the Hannemann administration seems to be backing off from its opposition, provided the city can retain some of the revenue and control the flow of garbage.

Specifically, the city needs to direct enough trash to its H-Power garbage-to-energy plant to fulfill its contractual obligation. In fact, the city would like to expand its capacity to produce electricity — which becomes more valuable every day.

Councilman Gary Okino has sponsored a resolution that would encourage the director of environmental services to come up with a trash-management plan that includes off-island shipment as an approved, if limited, option. That measure should pass, and city officials need to crunch some numbers to see how much revenue would be sacrificed and to what degree the life of the landfill in Waimanalo Gulch would be extended.

For now, landfills in Washington, Oregon and elsewhere are ready to accommodate our imported trash — they get a tipping fee at their end.

But Honolulu can't rely entirely on "outsourcing" as a long-term solution.

The city should continue to pursue ways of reducing the trash we generate. Public education efforts need to stress less wasteful packaging and more reuse of what we have.

Above all, this should not slow the drive for curbside recycling. In an island environment, all strategies must be pursued. As much as possible, Hawai'i needs to increase in self-sufficiency, developing homegrown solutions to its problems.