Wastewater

HPOWER

Introduction
Arriving
Sorting
Monitoring
Dispersing

Today, an average person in American produces over four pounds of waste each day. With over 850,000 residents and more than six million visitors a year, this is about 2,000 tons of waste per day on the island of Oahu. Our landfills are filling up and citizens demand recycling.   Yet experts say even successful recycling programs leave much of the waste behind.  In 1975, the State of Hawaii saw that an integrated solution to waste management was needed.  Included in the solution was an integrated waste-to-energy system.  From an environmental perspective, an effective waste-to-energy program does these things:

• Destroys bacteria, household chemicals, and other organic compounds in municipal solid waste. 
• Produces lower levels of pollutants than many composting facilities, landfills, and other energy sources. 
• Essentially eliminates the release of odor and methane gas (a greenhouse gas) from waste. 
• Conserves precious landfill space for waste materials that cannot be recycled or burned. 
• Complements recycling and separation of metals, glass, and plastic to help conserve materials and control pollution. 

For two years, the State of Hawaii investigated waste-to-energy plants in other states and concluded that such project is feasible in Honolulu.  Due to legal actions involved in issuing a contract to a sole bidder, the construction of H-POWER did not start until December 1985. Air pollution control and other problems delayed the construction which officially finished in May 1990.  Since then, several new pieces of equipment have been added to recover ferrous, aluminum and other nonferrous metals.

Now visit the Honolulu Program of Waste Energy Recovery and see where your garbage goes!

Return to VFT Homepage