Recycling only works if people care enough

California imposes a surcharge of 3 to 5 cents on every beverage can and bottle sold.

Since I moved to San Diego a year ago for school I haven't noticed any effect on consumer behavior because of the surcharge. The surcharge has made me think twice about purchasing a case of soda, but to many here it's just a cost of living.

On the rare occasion I do buy a bottled drink, I certainly don't run to the nearest recycling center to get my nickel back. I am more likely to throw it into a nearby recycling bin. If there is no bin nearby, I simply throw it in the trash.

The only people here who seem to be interested in recycling bottles are the homeless who pick through apartment complex trash bins.

You can impose a surcharge, but if people don't care about recycling, it won't make a difference.

Dustin Horie
San Diego

Bottle bill would clean up litter problem

I recently picked up 180 beverage containers at the Kalaeloa shore where the city took over a campground from the Navy. The containers were everywhere. The place was a mess.

It's time for a beverage container deposit system in Hawaii. It will recycle most of the 75,000 containers thrown out every day. It will help clean up our beaches, parks, gutters, parking lots, streets, retail centers, sidewalks and neighborhoods.

Our islands -- so fragile and beautiful -- need the bottle bill to save them from container blight.

The beverage industry's proposal for curbside recycling would be costly -- $10 million plus trash charges for each resident's garbage pick-up -- and there's no money for it now. It is a red herring. Let's not be thrown off the scent. Pass the bottle bill now.

William Liggett

[Quotables] "People can be sure that such attempts by homosexual activists to smear my reputation will continue in the future. But they can also be sure that I will not allow such attacks to deter me from carrying out my service to our families and schoolchildren." Carol Gabbard Board of Education member, on the state Ethics Commission's dismissal of charged filed against her last year. In March 2001, activists filed a complaint against Gabbard alleging that she failed to comply with financial interest disclosure laws. "I thought I'd get to travel, ride in limos, own my own car." Connie Tostado Former prostitute, describing what she thought her life would be like when she started selling her body at age 15. Now 18, Tostado is a peer educator and spokeswoman for Save Our Sisters, a nonprofit agency to help victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

State has oversight of health-care agencies

Last Wednesday's Star-Bulletin ran an editorial that reflected the often-repeated assertion by the state insurance commissioner that his office has no oversight of health plans.

It is important for the community to understand that the insurance commissioner already has oversight under current authority. The fact that auditors from his office spent 2,000 man-hours at the Hawaii Medical Services Association in the last 24 months is evidence of this oversight.

By law these auditors had unlimited access to HMSA records and staff. The auditors had ample opportunity to examine the HMSA rate-setting process. The insurance commissioner already has the information necessary to judge the adequacy of health plan rates. It is a mistake to believe that oversight does not exist now.

It is also important to point out that as a result of legislation passed in 1999 health plans are required to fund the Insurance Division's oversight process through the Health Insurance Revolving Fund. To date HMSA alone has provided $1.6 million to the fund.

The current legislation being discussed is not simple "oversight"; it is rate regulation, which is something altogether different. The bill would give the insurance commissioner unprecedented powers to dictate the terms of the agreements between health plans and employers. It is possible that the financial solvency and security of health plans would be threatened. We believe this extraordinary initiative would be disruptive and damaging to health care in Hawaii. No other state in the country has legislation this pervasive.

We have encouraged the legislators not to be misled by the rhetoric, read the legislation, ask for the facts and to be careful. This legislation could do serious damage to important community institutions that have served the people of Hawaii for many generations.

Cliff Cisco
Senior Vice President
HMSA

Humane society did help caged dog

Kevin Erickson-Velez ( Letters, Jan.25) obviously cares about dogs and we applaud his efforts to help a dog that he felt was being neglected. He did the right thing by calling the Hawaiian Humane Society, and we encourage others to do the same.

County and state laws give us the authority to protect animals and establish definitions for neglect, abuse and cruelty. We have no authority to impose standards of care other than what is stated in the law.

In cases where the law does not offer what we consider suitable protection, we try to educate pet owners and encourage them to provide better care for their pets.

In the case of the dog Erickson-Velez saw, it was a small dog being housed in a fairly large cage. It did not have any protection from the wire underfoot and when our officer pointed that out, the dog's owner immediately placed cardboard in the cage.

The owner also said the dog was only being housed there temporarily and would be moved to a relative's house in a few days. When our officer checked back a few days later, the dog had been moved to its new home.

Hawaii's animal protection laws are a reflection of the community's standards and tolerance. Changes are being proposed to the state's animal cruelty law in the current legislative session.

The Hawaiian Humane Society is whole-heartedly supporting the proposed changes and hopes that community members do so in great number.

Pamela Burns
President/CEO
Hawaiian Humane Society

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