Your gray bin city garbage pick-up changes next week — from twice a week to once a week — if you are an O'ahu resident who lives in these areas: Kuli'ou'ou to Manoa; Kapahulu; Kailua; Lanikai; Mokule'ia to Sunset Beach.

The reduction is necessary to accommodate the city's expanded curbside recycling program. As part of that effort, city officials delivered blue recycling bins and green bins for green waste to 40,000 homes in those communities last year. The switch begins next week.

City recycling coordinator Suzanne Jones said residents in the area have responded well to the new program, sorting out recyclables into the right containers and, in some cases, getting used to new collection dates.

Jones said a number of residents clearly worry that weekly garbage pick-up won't be enough. As soon as the notice went out that folks would be weaned off the twice-weekly gray bin pick-up, the requests came in to try to arrange for a second bin.

The way the program is designed, residents of these communities will have been getting used to sorting out recyclables such as glass jars and bottles, newspapers into the blue bins; and green waste into the green bins.

Beginning next week, these households will have the gray bin picked up weekly and a recycling pick-up will replace the other pick-up day, alternating between blue bins and green bins.

The Web site at www.opala.org includes maps, tips and a lot of other information. Residents also may call 768-3200.

Jones said most of the people who have already made the transition in Mililani and Hawai'i Kai found that they could make weekly pick-up work. "It starts to become a habit," she said.

Some Mililani and Hawai'i Kai residents did request — and receive — a second gray bin pick-up, but others didn't want to deal with having the city monitor and look through what they were throwing out each week.

"We've got to make sure that they have sorted everything out of that gray bin that can be put in the blue bin or green bin," Jones said. And that means weeks or months of a supervisor reviewing excess garbage from a household "not once in a while I have garbage because I had a party."

For a time, residents could use the gray cart to hold excess green waste but Jones said that option isn't available anymore: "You can't use the gray cart as a backup." She said that worked for a time because the gray bins were being emptied the day before the green waste pick-ups.

The next group of residents is expected to start the system in May in these areas: Waipi'o Gentry to Halawa; Wahiawa, Whitmore, Waipi'o Estates, Laulani Valley; Kane'ohe; Waimanalo. And in November for: Foster Village to Makiki; Kahuku to Kahalu'u.

And in May 2010: Makakilo to Waikele, Waipahu; 'Ewa Beach to West Loch; Honokai Hale to Makua.

Jones said, "A very small number of households who qualified for the second bin" in Mililani and Hawai'i Kai, were mostly large families, those with lots of kids in diapers and multigenerational households.

For those who occasionally have more than enough garbage, Jones said there are strategies to cope. Hold off some of the dry trash — stuff that won't smell — for the next pick-up. Or talk to your neighbors about sharing bin space when things get tight.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.