STAND. COM. REP. NO. 387

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 175

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 175 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RECYCLING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require state agencies to implement an on-site recycling program using rules issued by the Department of Health, in conjunction with the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, at buildings and facilities managed, maintained, or serviced by the Department of Accounting and General Services; and

(2) Require and appropriate funds for the Department of Health, in conjunction with the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, to conduct a study on the benefits and costs in increasing reuse and reduce efforts throughout the State, recycling streams, and solid waste management in Hawaii.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawai‘i Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and five individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and Office of Planning and Sustainable Development.

Your Committees find that zero waste living is an environmental ideal that the State aspires to one day realize. With zero waste living, waste is eliminated throughout the product lifecycle and zero waste products end up in a landfill or are destroyed by high temperature incineration. Your Committees further find that the State had previously set a recycling goal to reduce the solid waste stream prior to disposal by fifty percent through source reduction, recycling, and bioconversion by January 1, 2000. However, this statutory target has never been met, peaking at forty-three percent in 2015, and has since dropped precipitously to 24.8 percent in 2022. Your Committees acknowledge this decline and find importance in aligning the State with the Hawai‘i 2050 Sustainability Plan, which recommends that the State should comply with laws requiring recycling in state-owned facilities and incorporate principles of waste minimization and pollution prevention, such as reducing, reusing, and recycling as a standard operating practice in programs. Thus, this measure requires state agencies to implement an on-site recycling program at buildings and facilities managed, maintained, or serviced by the Department of Accounting and General Services and requires the Department of Health, in conjunction with the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, to conduct a study on the benefits and costs in increasing reuse and reduce efforts throughout the State.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 175 and recommend that it pass Second Reading 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 Government Operations,

________________________________ ANGUS L.K. MCKELVEY, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair