H-POWER continues to record high landfill diversion rates

News Release from City and County of Honolulu, Sept 26, 2022

HONOLULU – The city’s waste-to-energy facility, H-POWER, or the Honolulu Program Of Waste and Energy Recovery, is not only one of the largest firm renewable energy sources in the state, it also helps Honolulu achieve one of the highest landfill diversion rates in the country at 82%. Without H-POWER, Oahu would have generated enough waste to completely fill the Waimānalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill (WGSL) more than two times.

 H-POWER manages approximately 750,000 tons of waste annually, reducing the volume of the waste it burns by 90 percent while exporting up to 73 megawatts of electricity to the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) grid, enough to power 60,000 homes. Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, completed June 30, 2022, was one of its most efficient years to date. A record low 214,252 tons, mostly H-POWER ash and special wastes unsuitable for recycling or incineration, were landfilled at the WGSL while H-POWER logged a record high $77 million in electrical sales to HECO, helping it reinforce its renewable energy profile and its “firm” capacity that does not vary with the availability of sunlight or wind.

One of the largest metal recyclers in the state, H-POWER recovers about 25,000 tons of metals annually not captured by the curbside and drop-off recycling programs. With respect to recycling, it is noted all green waste collected in the curbside green carts and at drop-off centers is delivered to a city contractor and processed into compost. All mixed recyclables collected in curbside blue carts and at drop-off centers are processed for recycling by a city contractor.

The H-POWER facility commenced operations at its Campbell Industrial Park location in May 1990. Covanta has operated the facility since its inception. For the past 32 years, H-POWER diverted more than 20 million tons of waste from landfills, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 million tons, and reduced the need to import oil for energy production by 20 million barrels. Over this same time period, the H-POWER facility has saved 17 million cubic yards of landfill volume, thereby reducing the need for a landfill.

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