Governing.com’s Idea Center profiles the city and county of Honolulu’s Tour de Trash, an award-winning program that offers free, full-day tours of different recycling sites in an effort to facilitate educated public discussions and decision-making on recycling and waste management initiatives.

Apparently, the program has lots to show, as Honolulu recycles more than 600,000 tons of waste each year, and has one of the nation’s highest recycling rates at 35 percent.

The City Department of Environmental Services staff conducts six tours a year of recycling processes at various workplaces including hotels and restaurants; a wastewater treatment facility; waste-to-energy plants; construction and demolition landfills; and facilities that recycle rubber, aluminum, glass and plastic. The tours sell out every year and have earned the program a 2007 Outstanding Achievement Award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

For more information on Tour de Trash, click here.