Group accuses bottle
bill critics of lies

The Sierra Club says a "citizens group"
was a beverage industry front

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By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

The Sierra Club is calling a group that opposed the Hawaii bottle bill in the 2002 Legislature a "phony citizens organization" because a state report shows its sole funding source was the National Soft Drink Association.

Hawaii Citizens for Comprehensive Recycling ran a series of print and radio advertisements against the bottle bill at a cost of $34,891 during the months of April and May, the group reported to the state Ethics Commission this week.

The group's report indicated the same amount was received from the National Soft Drink Association, said Dan Mollway, executive director of the state Ethics Commission.

"Hundreds of thousands of local folks heard or saw misleading advertisements by an organization called Hawaii Citizens for Comprehensive Recycling. They were lied to," Hawaii Sierra Club Director Jeff Mikulina alleged in a news release.

"Why does the beverage industry hide behind a deceptive name to push their anti-recycling agenda?" he asked.

The ads warned that a "coalition of special interests" was "trying to stampede our Legislature into passing" a bottle bill.

Gary Yoshioka, the Pepsi Bottling Group general manager for Hawaii, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Yoshioka was the spokesman for Hawaii Citizens for Comprehensive Recycling during the legislative session and was present at most hearings on the bill.

Mollway said neither Pepsi nor Yoshioka registered as a lobbyist or filed expenditure statements.

State law requires that anyone who receives compensation for lobbying and either spends five hours a month lobbying the Legislature or spends $750 or more in a reporting period is required to register as a lobbyist. The penalty for not filing is $500, Mollway said.

The bottle bill was supported by Gov. Ben Cayetano, all four counties, environmental groups and community organizations.

The bottle bill was passed by the 2002 Legislature and sets up a program that will offer a 5-cent refundable deposit on most beverage containers beginning in 2005. A nonrefundable fee of a half-cent to 1.5 cents will cover the cost of setting up a network of collection centers for the empties.