Chaminade poll finds
majority in Legislature
support bottle bill

46% of lawmakers recycle in
their offices, the students found

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By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

A survey of state lawmakers by Chaminade University students found that a majority support the so-called bottle bill.

According to the survey, 57 percent of lawmakers support the bill, 13 percent oppose it and 30 percent are undecided or did not respond.

Senior Will Bick and sophomore Iumi Mori, students in an environmental policy and law class, conducted the survey between February and April.

They first e-mailed legislators, then followed up with office visits and calls to get as many responses as possible, Bick said yesterday.

He and Mori support the bottle bill and wanted to see where legislators stand on it, Bick said. They released the results of their survey to the news media yesterday.

House Bill 1256, Senate Draft 2, would place a 5-cent refundable deposit on each beverage can or bottle and a 2-cent fee to pay the cost of a collection and recycling program.

The bill was held over from the 2001 session in conference committee. No hearing on the bill had been scheduled as of last night.

"We can go out and do litter pickups or stream cleanups, or we can simply address the problem at its source with the bottle bill. It's currently the best readily applicable solution for Hawaii," said Bick.

The students also polled legislators' offices on their bottle and can recycling habits. They discovered that supporters of the bottle bill were more likely to recycle than those who do not support the measure.

About 46 percent of legislators recycle in their offices, with 49 percent of bottle bill supporters recycling and 42 percent of bottle bill opponents recycling, Bick and Mori said.

Gary Yoshioka, Pepsi general manager for Hawaii and a spokesman for the coalition of beverage distributors who are opposing the bill, could not be reached for comment last night.

The state Health Department will announce today the results of a survey of residents that shows "overwhelming" support for the bottle bill, said Gary Gill, Health Department deputy director.

Gill said the Health Department survey was conducted by a local polling firm, using a random, scientific sample of more than 500 people. He would not disclose further details yesterday.