Other homes will be added in 2009 and 2010 until most of the Island is covered. Each home will have three bins: gray bin for trash, blue for recyclables and green for green waste.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann yesterday rolled out his plan to expand the four-month-old pilot program now running in Hawai'i Kai and Mililani to the rest of O'ahu. All 160,000 homes on O'ahu that currently receive automated trash pick-up will be converted to the three-bin system by May 2010.

"We have always said that recycling starts with each of us," Hannemann said.

Another 20,000 homes cannot be serviced with automated trucks and will have to continue to rely on "manual pickup" that does not involve curbside recycling, Jones said.

"I think there's large room for confusion," said Linda Ure, who lives in Maunawili and is secretary for the Kailua Neighborhood Board. "I guess we'll have to wash out our blue bin to use for recyclables instead of green waste. But recycling needs to be tended to. It's long overdue in Kailua."

The blue bins were a leftover from the city's earlier, failed attempt at curbside recycling under Mayor Jeremy Harris and had been converted to green waste pick-up.

But the blue bins will go back to their intended use for recyclables when the entire island begins shifting to the new program.

The biggest concern is likely to be over the change in trash pickup schedules to accommodate a third bin, Jones said.

She urges everyone to remember to look inside the lid of the new bin — or bins — that they will receive before the start of their new service. There will be specific instructions on how to sort recyclables from trash and will explain the details of homes' individual pick-up schedules.

Basically, homes that receive twice-a-week trash pickup will continue to get service on the same days. Except the second pickup will be used only for recyclables one week and only for green waste on the other week.

The first pickup of each week will always be used for trash.

Many people will worry that they won't be able to fit all of their trash into just one pickup per week and will immediately want another gray bin.

Jones, in fact, expects hundreds of calls in the early days of the new system for each new community.

"Any program we launch, we get a surge of calls at the beginning, hundreds of calls every week, and then it tapers off," Jones said. "People often call in requesting additional (gray) bins. We say, 'Why don't you sort your recyclables for a while and call us back.' It's a little recycling therapy that my staff does. Change can be a challenge for people. They've got lots of stuff going on in their lives and now they have to change their habits."

So the city allows for a two-month transition period where trash will continue to be picked up twice per week "until people get accustomed to sorting their recyclables. People ask, 'Can I really manage with once a week garbage pickup?' That two months gives them time to sort through it. Then they start to really see how much less is in that gray bin."

People who still insist they need a second gray trash bin will be monitored by a city supervisor, who will check to make sure they're not putting unnecessary recyclables or green waste in their trash bins.

"There are large families who generate volumes of nonrecyclable refuse," Jones said. "They can get two bins for their once-a-week collection. But they have to demonstrate consistent need. We want people to recycle."

"While I compliment the mayor for announcing three more neighborhoods will receive curbside recycling by year-end, I am disappointed that the mayor is not implementing curbside recycling to all neighborhoods until 2010. I have been a longtime proponent of getting curbside recycling done islandwide as a key part of dealing with the city's growing garbage problem," stated Councilmember Charles Djou. "With O'ahu's limited landfill space and beautiful natural environment, the lack of an islandwide curbside recycling program is not just a 'nice-to-have' but an absolutely 'must-have' for all neighborhoods," Djou added.