As bales of compacted garbage continue to stack up at Hawaii Waste Systems in Leeward Oahu awaiting shipping to a landfill in Oregon, it’s beginning to look like the company could have problems meeting the requirements imposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The company was selected to send Honolulu’s refuse for burial in an Oregon landfill, part of the plan for extending the life of Oahu’s current landfill operation.

Just last week, the Honolulu Advertiser reported the first barge-load of Honolulu trash would sail for the mainland before the end of the year. Today, a follow-up story reports that date has been moved back until February 2010.

In the meantime, the stacks of baled garbage continue to grow, as do the problems of meeting strict federal requirements.

These requirements include a maximum time of 75 days between baling of sorted garbage in Honolulu and burial in the Oregon landfill, a deadline which has already been temporarily waved to accommodate the company’s start-up problems.

The following are among the detailed requirements spelled out in the Compliance Agreement between Hawaii Waste Systems and the US Department of Agriculture for baling, wrapping, and handling of garbage to be shipped to the mainland.

Bales are to be wrapped with “a minimum of 4 layers of pre-stretched, mastic-backed polyethylene plastic, of at least 16 micrometers thickness….”

At various stages of processing, the agreement requires bales to be rewrapped if the plastic wrap is torn or damaged. That requirement extends to a final inspection as as bales are loaded onto the barge, and they must be returned for rewrapping if damage is seen.

“HWS will examine each wrapped bale to ensure the air tight integrity and proper wrapping. Any bales that are punctured, ruptured, or torn will be re-wrapped by HWS.”

The company is required to maintain records of “ruptures, punctures or tears to include the date, name of inspecting personnel, action taken and names of personnel completing action.”

“The bales must be permanently marked with the words “REGULATED GARBAGE,” printed in a contrasting color to the wrap.”

“Bales that have been punctured, ruptured, or torn enroute to the (staging area) site shall be marked with colored tape and set aside for re-wrapping and returned to a wrapping area.”

“The landfilled bales must be completely buried under a minimum of 7 feet of material in the Roosevelt Regional Landfill within 75 days of being staged in Hawaii.”

The bottom line is that bales of garbage must be well wrapped and not have any leaks, but bales stacked and stored at Hawaii Waste Systems can been easily seen to be damaged, punctured and torn. None of these damaged bales appeared to be marked with colored tape as required by the Compliance Agreement.

Click on the photo to see more of the compacted, baled, and stored trash.

Moving the damaged bales back to be rewrapped and then returned to the storage area and eventually transferred to the dock will clearly drive up expenses for the operation, and the process has to be repeated any time the plastic wrapping is found to be punctured or ripped. Some industry insiders were already questioning whether Hawaii Waste Systems’ low bid can generate enough revenue to keep the trash-shipping project afloat, and this appears to put more pressure on the company.