STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2478

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3084

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 3084 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require that residential and commercial solid waste be separated by source to be processed at appropriate facilities;

(2) Require counties to update their integrated solid waste management plans;

(3) Establish a new waste stream reduction goal by 2030; and

(4) Appropriate funds to each county to help subsidize their waste management programs.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Pono Hawai‘i Initiative, Our Revolution Hawaii, and four individuals. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Environmental Management of the County of Hawai‘i, Department of Environmental Services of the City and County of Honolulu, Retail Merchants of Hawaii, and one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committees find that the State has a duty to protect the environment, economy, and public health of its people. The Office of Solid Waste Management in the Department of Health is tasked with leading the State's solid waste management planning by promoting source reduction, recycling, and bioconversion through the provision of a comprehensive, innovative, and effective statewide public education and awareness program concerning the value of source reduction and recycling, and ways the public can participate in these areas.

Your Committees further find that many state and local governments have recycling mandates or landfill prohibitions to encourage waste diversion; however, Hawaii is severely lacking in this area. Your Committees acknowledge that financial constraints and other considerations may cause enactment of this measure in its existing form impracticable. Your Committees therefore find that this measure should instead update the State's total solid waste goals to comport with the Aloha+ Challenge goals, thereby supporting best management practices for sustainability and protecting the environment.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that would have required that residential and commercial solid waste be separated by source to be processed at appropriate facilities;

(2) Deleting language that would have required the counties to update their integrated solid waste management plans;

(3) Establishing a new waste stream reduction goal by 2030 of seventy percent, rather than eighty percent;

(4) Deleting the appropriation of funds to each county to help subsidize their waste management programs;

(5) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose; and

(6) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3084, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3084, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair