After years of planning, the city begins the first of four phases of islandwide curbside recycling when the service starts today for more than 35,000 O'ahu residents.

Voters approved an amendment to the city Charter in November 2006 requiring that the city create and implement islandwide recycling.

"It's been a long-awaited amenity for O'ahu residents," said Jeff Mikulina, former Hawai'i director of the Sierra Club and the author of the 2006 Charter amendment. "It's easier to do the right thing when they come to your curb. It's another piece (toward solving) our solid-waste puzzle."

About 39,000 homes on the North Shore (Mokule'ia to Sunset Beach), and in East Honolulu (Kuli'ou'ou to Manoa, Kapahulu) and Kailua (including Lanikai) join the pilot communities of Mililani and Hawai'i Kai in the automated pickup of rubbish, recyclables and green waste, according to city officials.

The collection days remain the same: Mondays/Thursdays, Tues-days/Fridays or Wednesdays/Saturdays.

A few neighborhoods change collection days and will be notified by city officials.

A two-month transition period allows residents to adjust to the new system.

The twice-weekly rubbish collection continues with the added recycling pickup in order to allow residents to get used to sorting recycling material into the blue and green bins and to figure out if more bins are needed.

"The people of O'ahu want recycling, and now the city is ready to begin with East Honolulu, Kailua and the North Shore," said Ken Shimizu, city deputy director of environmental services. "Mayor (Mufi) Hannemann, who worked diligently with the unions, was instrumental bringing this to fruition."

Beginning the week of Jan. 12, the second rubbish pickup will be eliminated.

Rubbish will be collected once a week and recyclables will be collected once a week, alternating weekly between mixed recyclables (blue cart) and green waste (green cart).

An instructional brochure is attached to the inside of blue bins for homes in East Honolulu, and inside green bins for Kailua and the North Shore communities.

Councilman Donovan M. Dela Cruz said that while implementing the plan, officials must recognize the need for different types of services in rural and urban communities.

The pilot project serves about 20,000 households.

The pilot project is expected to cost up to $1.5 million, while an islandwide program could cost about $9 million per year, officials said.

The city estimates that once the program goes islandwide, the city can collect 80,000 tons of green waste and 40,000 tons of recyclables per year.

The state started tacking on 5-cent deposits and a 1-cent administrative fee to bottles and cans in November 2004, and redemption centers opened in early 2005.

A November 2007 report to the Legislature, which contains the latest statistics available, says about 68 percent of all cans and bottles sold are now recycled.

In all, 633 million containers were redeemed in the fiscal year that ended in June 2007.