Kapaa Refuse Transfer Station

Kapaa Refuse Transfer Station is the local spot where household trash gets compacted and then trucked off-island or to a distant landfill. Neighbors and small haulers use it when dropping off loads that are easier to leave here than driving to a faraway dump.

Pull into a small entrance with an attendant booth and a scale-loads are weighed before and after, so there is a stop at the scale. The yard has a few large containers and a covered compactor area where trucks drop off; expect to walk a short distance from where a vehicle parks to where trash is dumped. It looks like a working industrial lot more than a tidy drop-off park; concrete pads, trucks coming and going, and the smell that comes with a transfer station are all part of the scene. Lines form on weekends and during neighborhood cleanup times, so traffic can back up onto the access road.