HONOLULU (KHON2) — Over a dozen shopping carts, household items and a lot of other items were found washout onto Kahala Beach, according to City officials.
The Department of Parks and Recreation said clean-up is underway to remove the large of amount trash that washed out during Sunday’s heavy rainstorm.
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A lot of single-use plastics and clothing were also found in the piles of trash.
“And what a lot of ppl don’t realize is most clothing is not made from cotton, it’s polyester or some elastics that don’t biodegrade,” said Nate Serota from the Department of Parks and Recreation.
The City’s Department of Facility Maintenance and community members worked upstream to see where the pollution was coming from. They said they believed the items came from a Goodwill drop-off donation site at Kahala Mall where people have been leaving their donations outside, after business hours.
“And what’s happening is a lot of the houseless — a lot of thieves are noticing this accumulation and going and taking these donations for themselves,” said Serota. “And what they want they keep and what they don’t want they are discarding into the Molowai Stream.”
Serota said the items then accumulated in the area over time but once the heavy rain hit, it washed all the debris onto Kahala Beach.
The Department of Parks and Recreation said residents have told them it’s happened before but this time was the worst case seen.
“We’re gonna be talking to Goodwill, Kahala Mall and working with Honolulu Police Department,” said Serota. “As well too to see if we can modify some of their operations to limit not only people dumping their donations illegally but also ppl stealing these donations.”
In response to the incident Goodwill made this statement:
Like so many other businesses, the homeless activity has had a negative impact on our operations. We’ve been actively working to deter after-hours dumping at our Kahala Mall donation center, which includes: adding signage to try and deter donors from leaving their donations after hours as well as scheduling additional pick-ups in the early morning and in the evenings to collect any items left after hours.
Goodwill said they made the decision to extend the Hours of Operation at its Kahala Mall Attended Donation Center.
They hope this will allow more time for people to drop off their donations but ask that the community do their part in only dropping off items during the appropriate hour.
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“When our donation centers are closed, all items are locked safely and securely inside,” said Goodwill.
