SB2005 HD1

Report Title:

Beverage Container Recycling

 

Description:

Authorizes the county of Hawaii to conduct a three-year demonstration beverage container fee system. Authorizes counties, with the Legislature's approval, to impose an assessment on glass containers for the same purpose as the advance glass disposal fee. (SB2005 HD1)

 

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2005
TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII		H.D. 1

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the current statewide recycling rate is approximately twenty-five per cent--far short of the fifty per cent rate that the State had hoped to reach by 2000. In addition, the department of health estimates that existing drop-off systems are capturing only twenty per cent of beverage containers.

One means of increasing the State's recycling rate is a deposit system for beverage containers. Ten states and one municipality that have these "bottle bill" laws achieve far higher recycling rates--in the range of seventy to eighty per cent. However, legitimate concerns regarding the cost of implementing a bottle bill in Hawaii have been raised by businesses, particularly retailers who would be required to establish a process to redeem and then recycle beverage containers.

In testimony before the 2001 legislature regarding proposed bottle bill legislation, the county of Hawaii suggested, as an alternative, that retailers collect the deposit fees, but use the funds generated to pay entrepreneurs to establish or act as redemption centers. While this could result in lower redemption values in the initial stages of the program, the value of having a cooperative relationship between government and business would more than compensate for the partial and temporary diversion of funds.

The county of Hawaii also proposed the Big Island as a demonstration site and requested authorization to establish a beverage container deposit system, and work with retailers and other interested parties to find an approach that makes the business community and government partners in litter control and recycling.

The purpose of this Act is to authorize the county of Hawaii to establish a three-year demonstration beverage container deposit system.

SECTION 2. Section 342G-82, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (d) to read as follows:

"(d) No county, unless authorized by the legislature, shall impose or collect any assessment or fee on glass containers for the same or similar purpose that is [[]the[]] subject of this chapter."

SECTION 3. The county of Hawaii is authorized to establish a three–year demonstration beverage container fee system. The county of Hawaii shall report on the status of the demonstration system to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular sessions of 2003, 2004, and 2005.

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2002.