Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle is, unsurprisingly, pleased by the Hawaii Supreme Court ruling in the city’s favor that lifted the July 31 deadline to stop taking trash at Waimanalo Gulch Landfill.

“No community wants a landfill in its back yard, but it’s important to understand that our island will continue to need one for the foreseeable future to handle materials that can’t be recycled, can’t be turned into energy by the H-Power plant, or that result from a natural disaster,” Carlisle said in a press release this afternoon.

Interestingly, the court also struck down the permit, saying it couldn’t figure out if the Land Use Commission still would have approved it without the July 2012 condition. The city says the landfill will continue normal operations while lawyers review the decision.