By Jim Mendoza
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Looking out from Diamond Head lookout the picture is perfect. Sun, surf, and scenery.
"It's just heaven on earth almost out here," says tourist Blythe Casey.
But drop your view to ground level and the scene sours. The trash cans along the lookout have been overflowing with rubbish.
"It's just so bad when people come up there and see all the garbage around there," says Waikiki resident Ken Simon. "It overflows and then it starts blowing all over this land."
Spanky Lewis says the cans go unemptied for days, or weeks, and sometimes months.
"It's embarrassing. You got bus loads of tourists coming here and seeing this trash. Nobody wants to come to paradise and look at trash. It's a waste of money. When you come to Hawaii, you want to see the beauty. You don't want to see the trash."
Lewis cleans up around the lookout every morning because he wants it to be clean. He's even emptied the overflowing cans and taken the garbage to the dump on his own.
"Every six months I go down there and go in that ravine and pick up all the trash. But this is not helping me at all. If I was to sweep every day, the trash is going to keep blowing over. It's a waste of time, you know."
Ken Simon got so fed up he emailed the city. A spokesperson with the mayor's office told us a private company did the job. But their contract expired December 31st and the company that was going to take over couldn't meet requirements. That created a gap when no one was collecting the garbage the mayor's office is now asking why?
The city says it's contracted another company to empty the trash cans. Service starts next week.
Copyright 2012 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
Spanky Lewis
Ken Simon
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2012 WorldNow and KHNL, a Raycom Media Station. 
