HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Volunteers had a ball Friday getting dirty in Waikiki. Around 100 people from Outrigger Resorts and Hotels, along with a group from Kalani High School, made genki balls to help clean up the Ala Wai Canal.

The Genki Ala Wai Project has been around since 2019.

Groups toss genki balls into the Ala Wai Canal and other polluted waterways. The mud balls — made with rice bran, molasses, and EM-1, a solution of microorganisms — are said to eat sludge.

“The phototrophic bacteria is a special one. They eat the hydrogen sulfide, all the ammonia, all the stinky gas, that’s their food,” said Hiromichi Nago, technical consultant for The Genki Ala Wai Project and president of EM Hawaii.

But scientists at Hawaii Pacific University say their two-year study shows genki balls c

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