Hello from the Big Island of Hawaii

**newattitude** · 03-12-2014, 12:58 PM

I've never been to Hawaii. How do they recycle there then? If I'm reading some posts correctly, there are no scrap metal buyers in Hawaii? Or just certain islands?

Sorry for the dumb question

**emeeks** · 03-12-2014, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by newattitude

I've never been to Hawaii. How do they recycle there then? If I'm reading some posts correctly, there are no scrap metal buyers in Hawaii? Or just certain islands?

Sorry for the dumb question

Well, for businesses and home owners they can recycle their computer equipment every 3rd Wednesday of the month with our state land fill.

OR!

They can give it to a guy like me, who scraps it out, sells it, and then I give what I can't sell here locally to a guy on the other side of the Island.

Since they only pay .20 cents a pound for AL and $1.27 a pound for copper, I'm just going to save it up and freight it somewhere when I get a big enough lot.

It's probably different on Honolulu though.

**Scrap808** · 03-12-2014, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by emeeks

Aha! Another 808er

Welcome aboard Chad! Being from Honolulu I imagine you at least have a way to sell your scrap locally. There's absolutely no where to sell it here.

Pleasure having you.

Yes. There appears to be a little more opportunity here (in terms of shred, steel, appliances, etc.) but I still run into the problem of e-waste, etc.

Originally Posted by newattitude

I've never been to Hawaii. How do they recycle there then? If I'm reading some posts correctly, there are no scrap metal buyers in Hawaii? Or just certain islands?

Sorry for the dumb question

Here on Oahu, there are a few metal recyclers and brokers. The main recycler for non-commercial loads (although they also accept commercial loads) is a yard located in the south west corner of the island (Kapolei) that owns about 4 drop off outlets. The prices at the main yard (about 30 minutes from Honolulu) are:

$0.06/lbs. general shred, steel, appliances
$0.09/lbs. irony aluminium
$0.50/lbs. clean sheet and cast aliminium
$1.15/lbs. brass
$1.29/lbs. #2 copper

Prices at the satellite depots are about 30% less because all material is containerized and trucked to the main yard.

No yards on Oahu pay for e-waste though. This yard charges $0.25/lbs. for e-waste recycling (except for computer towers. They pay a flat rate of $2.00 per complete tower). Residents here are allowed to dispose of their e-waste in the regular trash (if it can fit in their bin for weekly pick-up) or wait for bulky items pick-up once a week. There is one company I know of that will take all e-waste for free (I use them to unload my stripped CRTs). They have large bins to dump whatever kind of e-waste you have at HI-5 (Hawaii's bottle/can redemption program) locations making them very convenient.

One big note about Hawaii, however, is that all copper must be notarized (costing anywhere from $0 to $10 depending on where you go).