Honolulu Environmental Services: reviews, rating and service info

The City and County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services (ENV) runs curbside collection on Oʻahu. About 160,000 homes use three carts: gray refuse weekly, with blue recycling and green waste alternating every other week on a second day. About 20,000 homes have manual, refuse-only pickup. Bulky items go by appointment. The days depend on the address.

Serves: Honolulu, Hawaii; see the Honolulu trash pickup schedule for pickup days, holidays, bulk rules and drop-off sites.

What they collect and how often

Each automated-route home has a pair of days: Monday/Thursday, Tuesday/Friday or Wednesday/Saturday; one for the gray cart, the other for blue or green in alternate weeks. The blue cart takes newspaper, office paper, paper bags, flattened cardboard, glass bottles and jars, aluminum and steel cans, and plastic containers #1 and #2, loose; not junk mail, magazines or cereal boxes. The green cart takes yard waste, palm fronds and natural Christmas trees. Under G.R.O.W., food scraps go in it too, loose and with no plastic of any kind: the program began April 1, 2026 in Kailua, Hawaiʻi Kai, Mililani, Nānākuli, Waipahu and Kalihi, and ENV announced that it goes islandwide on October 1, 2026 for every home with the three-cart system.

Find your collection day

The HNL.INFO schedule lookup shows your two days and which week is blue and which is green. In some areas the first day of the pair is recycling, in others refuse, so check your own schedule rather than a neighbor’s.

Set-out rules

Put carts at the curb by 6 a.m., but not before 6 p.m. the evening before; keep them on your property on other days. Point the handle away from the street and leave 5 feet of clearance. Everything must fit with the lid closed; carts have a 75-pound limit. Bag refuse; never bag recycling. Manual routes use your own cans of 35 gallons or less, 75 pounds or less, with lids untied.

Holidays

Refuse crews observe only Christmas and New Year’s Day. Nothing is collected those days, bulky items included: a gray cart due that day stays at the curb until it is serviced, and blue and green carts wait for the next scheduled pickup. Transfer stations, convenience centers, H-POWER and the landfill also close those two days. Every other holiday, including Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26, 2026, is a regular collection day.

Bulk, brush and special items

Book bulky pickup online or at 808-768-3200, option 0: one appointment per address per month (weekly in Waikīkī). Single-family homes may set out five bulky items, with two metal appliances on a separate appliance appointment. Put items out after 6 p.m. the night before and by 6 a.m.; long items and bundles are capped at 6 feet and 60 pounds. Natural Christmas trees cannot be booked.

Hazardous waste, electronics and drop-off

Household hazardous waste has no permanent drop-off site. ENV holds appointment-only drop-off events, which its calendar says are scheduled every two months; its Household Hazardous Waste page shows the next date and whether registration is open. Register at 808-768-3201 or hhw@honolulu.gov; only registered items are taken, up to 12, and events fill at 200 attendees. Dried latex and oil paint go in the gray cart; aerosol, lead and aluminum paint go to the events. Every convenience center and transfer station has an e-waste bin for computers, laptops, tablets, TVs, printers and game consoles, but not phones.

Missed pickup and contacts

Use ENV’s Report a Missed Pick Up page to reach your local collection yard. A cart that was blocked, overloaded or holding the wrong material is picked up next collection day once fixed; with no tag from the crew, leave the cart at the curb and call the yard. Refuse questions: 808-768-3200 or collection@honolulu.gov.

What this is not

Apartments and condos are not part of G.R.O.W. and follow the property manager’s directions; they book bulky items per unit and use the building’s common pickup spot. The manual-route homes have no curbside recycling yet.

On Trashbagging

Honolulu trash pickup schedule and Hawaii (state hub). Guides: paint, household hazardous waste, lithium-ion batteries, mattresses, Christmas trees.

Context photo: Aerial panorama of Waikiki and Honolulu. Edmund Garman, 2014-12-11. CC BY 2.0 · Source. Resized for web.