STAND. COM. REP. NO. 607

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1458

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 1458 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish an Extended Producer Responsibility Program;

(2) Require certain producers of fast-moving consumer goods to register with the Department of Health and pay an annual fee based on the amount of packaging volume the covered producer places on the market each calendar year;

(3) Provide for the deposit of fees into an Extended Producer Responsibility Special Fund;

(4) Provide for the expenditure of moneys from the Extended Producer Responsibility Special Fund for the creation of a report that assesses the resources needed to reduce the volume of packaging waste sent to landfills or power plants that burn municipal solid waste as a fuel by fifty percent and eighty percent by a date to be determined by rule; and

(5) Appropriate funds for administration of the program and one position.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Environmental Management of the County of Hawai‘i; one member of the Hawai‘i County Council; Atlantic Packaging Corporation; Huli Pac; Chamber of Sustainable Commerce; 350 Hawaii; Our Revolution Hawaii; Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers; Recycle Hawaii; Clean the Pacific; and eighteen individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Consumer Brands Association; Wine Institute; Ameripen; American Cleaning Institute; American Beverage; Product Stewardship Institute; Retail Merchants of Hawaii; Hawai‘i Restaurant Association; Island Plastic Bags, Inc.; Hawaii Food Manufacturers Association; and two individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health; Department of Budget and Finance; Hawai‘i Reef and Ocean Coalition; Upstream; and Abbot labs.

Your Committee finds the accumulation of solid waste in Hawaii to be unsustainable and a growing cause for concern. Consumers and governments have long been burdened by the problems attributed to solid waste, while producers often evade blame and deny responsibility. Extended producer responsibility is a policy approach in which a producer's responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product's life cycle. Your Committee finds that an Extended Producer Responsibility Program in the State can help to reduce solid waste in Hawaii by requiring certain producers to register with the Department of Health and pay an annual fee based on the amount of packaging volume the producer places on the market each calendar year. Therefore, this measure establishes an Extended Producer Responsibility Program and implements rules to aid in the curbing of solid waste accumulation in the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1458, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1458, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Commerce and Consumer Protection.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,

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MIKE GABBARD, Chair