Implementing a pay-as-you-throw system at Hawai'i County's 21 recycling and transfer stations could generate more than $10 million in revenue annually. However, residents would have to pay about $2 per bag they drop off at Island transfer stations.

"It's a financial incentive for people to reduce their own waste. It's a way to help drive recycling and pay for the new additional services that will help the county move toward zero waste," said CH2M Hill consulting economist Dan Pitzler, noting a 2006 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that showed 7,000 U.S. communities kept 6.5 million tons of municipal waste out of landfills by implementing similar pay-as-you-throw programs.

About 30 people attended the final meeting on the draft County of Hawai'i Integrated Resources and Solid Waste Management Plan Update Tuesday evening at Kona Outdoor Circle. By January, the five-year plan will be submitted to the state Department of Health for final approval.

Should the plan be implemented, officials project the island's current recycling rate of 29 percent could reach 44 percent within five years.

"One of the key elements of a plan like this is source reduction," Pitzler said. "We'd like to reduce the amount of waste we generate, period, so that we don't have to take it to landfills."

To keep recyclable items and green waste out of Big Island landfills, the plan also calls for re-use programs, making producers responsible for recycling and offering a mobile mulching service that could be moved between transfer stations.

Further, the plan calls for areas for commercial recycling, modifying the building permitting process to require waste reduction plans and rezoning for commercial entities to compost materials.

"If you want people to use the system, you have to make it easy for them to use," said Opihihale resident Ken Obenski about the importance of making the programs not only accessible but easy for all to understand and take part in.

The public has until Oct. 30 to submit comments to the Department of Environmental Management Solid Waste Division, Attn: IRSWMP Comments, 25 Aupu-ni St., Hilo, HI 96722.