O'ahu is making progress in efforts to manage its solid waste, but the episode over the proposed shipping of garbage to the Mainland can't be held out as evidence of that.

Whether or not Hawaiian Waste Systems LLC was acceptable as low bidder for such a contract is the subject of a year-long dispute. A series of challenges from competitors, which city procurement officers denied about five months ago, has culminated with the officers rejecting Hawaiian Waste Systems as a bidder, only last week.

The city maintains that it made the best decision in the interest of the taxpayer and commits to pursuing another bidder for the work, which involves shipping rubbish to a Mainland landfill. HWS executives say the company has made a substantial investment itself to get ready for the start date, which had been tentatively set for today.

But now it won't be happening for some time. HWS is challenging its rejection, which further delays resumption of a procurement process that already has dragged on intolerably. It has been more than a year since bids were opened, which is far too long a time lapse only to end up without a bidder selected.

What's needed now is a solution that enables the start of off-island shipping quickly.

Exporting O'ahu waste is not the silver bullet in itself. But it's one of a range of plans for dealing with the island's garbage in a manageable way. Expanding the H-Power garbage-to-energy plant is another prong.

And yesterday the city announced plans for other projects aimed at cutting the volume of landfill garbage.

This month the city will seek proposals for projects to convert more green waste and food waste to usable products; and to explore plasma arc, gasification and other innovations to reduce waste further. Two later contracts will deal with recycling H-Power ash and residue that's now sent to the landfill.

But although these are ideas worthy of pursuit, they don't reconcile the more immediate need to avoid endlessly expanding existing landfills and seeking new ones.

The shipping project is one short-term fix, an opportunity that should be realized soon.

One proposal that deserves consideration is a resolution, up for hearing before a City Council committee today, to allow the company to press ahead with its shipping service, accepting trash from a mix of public and private haulers. Such an arrangement, enabled for a short term, can help divert trash from the island's existing landfill while the city completes its H-Power expansion.

A sustainable waste-management system for an island should be a patchwork of various strategies. It's important to move on each one of them, and sooner rather than later.