Conferees settle on terms of bottle bill

The Maui News
Friday, April 30, 2004

By MARK ADAMS, Staff Writer

HONOLULU - Hawaii residents will start paying a nickel deposit on beverage containers Nov. 1 under the final draft of a bill fine-tuning the state's "bottle bill," with the program going into full swing on Jan. 1.

House and Senate conferees made final adjustments Thursday to a bill authored by Maui Sen. J. Kalani English, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment, before approving it and sending it on for a final vote next week.

Although consumers will start paying the deposit in November if the full Legislature approves the bill and it is signed by Gov. Linda Lingle, they won't be able to get their nickels back until January, allowing funding to operate the program to build up.

The conference committee included rules for the program in the bill approved Thursday, answering a major objection of the beverage industry, which had asked for a delay in starting up the program because they said they had no idea what labeling requirements would be included in the law.

Advocates of the recycling program argued against a delay, saying that what the beverage industry really wanted was to derail the program during the legislative session next year.

English said he wanted the program implemented as quickly as possible.

"Retailers have had plenty of time to prepare for this," English said, noting that the Deposit Beverage Container Program was first approved in the 2002 legislative session.

The labeling issue is moot, the senator said, noting that some distributors have already started putting the "HI5‚" on bottles.

Kauai Rep. Hermina Morita, who represented the House on the conference committee and has also worked for years to get the deposit bill enacted, said she was pleased with the outcome.

"People are very excited about the program," she said, adding that she does not expect anyone to object to having to start paying the deposit two months before they can redeem the containers.

The deposit law will add 60 cents to the cost of a 12-pack of soda, with the money returned when the cans are taken to a redemption center. There is another penny per container that is paid by dealers to the state to help fund the program. That additional cost can be absorbed by the dealer or added to the cost of the beverage being sold.

The bill gives beverage dealers until July of next year to put required redemption facilities into place. English said that recognizes the fact that building permits or other land-use issues may slow the process.

But he and Morita said they are confident that redemption centers will be established on all islands of the state by January.

Anyone can apply for a permit to run a center, English said, from an existing business interested in the extra traffic that would be generated by consumers bringing in their cans and bottles to an entity like a county promoting recycling as a way of keeping tons of solid waste out of its landfill.

The only reservations expressed during the conference committee hearing came from Oahu Sen. Fred Hemmings, who objected to the additional one-cent operational fee being charged.

He said that ultimately, that cost is going to be borne by the consumer, and he added that it was an increase in taxation and also a burden to business.

There is an exemption in the bill for redemption centers in rural or remote areas like Hana, where dealers will not be required to take back empty containers because of the cost of transporting them to an urban area for shipping.

But English said that there are many other possibilities for collecting the containers in those areas. For example, a school or other nonprofit group might serve as a collection point and transport the material, keeping the nickel as a fund-raising mechanism.

Another benefit of the law is that beaches, roadways and parks will be scoured by organizations and individuals interested in collecting the nickel deposit on containers discarded by those who aren't interested in getting their money back, the lawmakers said.

Currently, Hawaii recycles about 20 percent of the 800 million beverage containers discarded each year. States with bottle bills report an 80 percent recovery rate.

Both English and Morita said the deposit law has been needed for a long time in Hawaii.

"Bottle bills have been shown to be effective wherever they have been enacted, and Hawaii should be among the nation's leaders in promoting the recycling of waste materials," he said.

Morita noted that glass, aluminum and plastic containers holding up to 64 ounces are covered under the bill, including fruit drinks and water, but not milk.

"Now that recyclable aluminum containers are being phased out and the use of plastics is on the rise, our roadways are being littered and our landfills are being filled with plastic bottles," she said. "We cannot afford to wait any longer to address this pressing environmental issue."

Mark Adams can be reached at madams@mauinews.com.

Copyright © 2003 — The Maui News

Return to Sen. English Home Page - KalaniEnglish.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home Bills and Resolutions About Senator English Committees Community Profiles Newsletter Archive News Archive Capitol Web Site Media Photos

Connect with Senator English

OUR DISTRICT