HONOLULU -- Trash has been piling up at dozens of Oahu public schools because a private garbage hauler contracted to do the work has run into problems.

At McKinley High School, the garbage overflowed from the dumpsters at mid-morning.

Trash hasn't been collected there since Friday. So, it piled up outside the dumpsters as well. The flies have begun congregating.

"(It's) nasty. It's all stink when we walk by to go eat lunch. (It) makes us lose our appetite," freshman Josh Edmond said.

"Just looking at it makes our school look bad," sophomore Josh Ward said.

Custodial crews have been spraying down the trash with a natural enzyme to try to keep the odor and the germs down.

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"Eventually, you'll start to get maggots and flies and it's unhealthy and other stuff like that," head custodian Esther Shibata said.

McKinley is one of 87 schools in the Honolulu and Windward districts that haven't had trash collection since the end of last week. The Department of Education said contactor International Resource Recovery was in bankruptcy. When its last truck broke down last week, it stopped collecting trash.

"The trustee has taken the company out of business," International Resource Recovery President Henry Johnson said.

Johnson said a bankruptcy trustee said, "The customers, they will not be serviced after Friday, and the employees, that they won't have jobs after Friday. And those employees have been offered and most have accepted employment with our new company."

The DOE has hired two garbage firms, which began picking up trash from schools Wednesday, while it re-bids the garbage contract. Johnson said his company still holds a Navy contract to pick up trash at Pearl Harbor.