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Bottle law delay foiledOther measures to help Hawaii's environment fail to meet conference deadline News ReleaseFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 30th, 2004 CONTACT: Jeff Mikulina 226-4987 STATE CAPITOL - After entertaining the possibility of a six-month delay in the program, state lawmakers decided that the beverage container deposit law should start on schedule after all. Starting January 1st, 2005, nickels will be paid back to consumers for recycling bottles or cans. A compromise bill to amend the state bottle law passed out of a joint House-Senate conference committee yesterday afternoon. The measure, SB 1611 CD1, delays for six months the requirement that certain retailers in Honolulu operate a redemption center. That delay, however, is of little concern to recycling advocates because it is believed retailers will operate redemption centers to achieve a competitive advantage and independent redemption centers will be established throughout Honolulu. "We are relieved that lawmakers didn't cave to the beverage industry's demands to delay the program," said Jeff Mikulina, Director of the Sierra Club, Hawai`i Chapter. "It was nothing more than a stratagem to derail this highly effective recycling and litter control measure." The bill passed yesterday makes some housekeeping amendments to the bottle law, including clarifying that the container deposits are not taxable and specifying reporting requirements for certified redemption centers. The bill also addresses the concerns raised by the beverage industry regarding their ability to label drink containers before the January 1st start date by requiring any unmarked beverage containers sold after January 1st to have stickers indicating the refund value. Finally, the bill incorporates the container deposit rules that were drafted over the past two years by an advisory committee made up of recyclers, retailers, industry representatives, the Department of Health, and community groups. By incorporating the rules into the statute, the traditional administrative rulemaking process is bypassed-a process that had been stalled by the beverage industry and the Lingle Administration. "The rulemaking process was the last hurdle to fully implementing this recycling measure," said Mikulina. "We can now look forward to the diversion of over a half a billion bottles and cans from Hawai`i landfills every year." Approximately 75,000 beverage containers are discarded every hour in Hawai`i, or 800 million per year. States with bottle bills recycle between 80% and 95% of their beverage containers. Other environmental measures did not fare so well this week. A measure to improve the process by which Hawaii's shorelines are identified and certified for determining the setback for coastal developments failed to meet the conference committee deadline Thursday night. Senate leadership failed to designate conferees for the measure (SB 1556)-a clear sign that the Senate wasn't even interested in negotiating with the House, whose draft of the bill was much more protective of Hawaii's beaches and shorelines. A measure to establish a bioprospecting advisory commission (SB 643), also failed to meet last night's deadline. The commission would have been tasked with developing legislation to address environmental and cultural concerns surrounding bioprospecting, including equitable benefit sharing. It also appears that a measure appropriating funds to assist with the purchase of Pupukea-Paumalu on the North shore of O`ahu (HB 2759) is failing. Measures to regulate cruise industry discharge and prevent muddy runoff pollution failed earlier in the legislative session. "The Sierra Club has been frustrated with the number of important environmental measures that have fallen by the wayside this session," said Mikulina. Today conference committees will be finalizing legislation to set up a process to designate "important agricultural lands" (SB 3052) and discussing a bill that may reduce the budgets of environmental programs. Senate Bill 1491 seeks to raid the natural area reserves fund and the state parks special fund of upwards of $2 million each-a move that the Sierra Club strongly opposes. "Currently, Hawaii's natural resource programs are criminally underfunded," said Mikulina. "Raiding what little they have is adding insult to injury." A decision on the measure must be reached before midnight tonight. # # #
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| © 2005 City & County of Honolulu's Department of Environmental Services. | |||||||||||||||
