Panel approves
revised bottle bill

A refundable 5-cent deposit
would begin in 2005 if the
bill passes the Legislature

---

By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

A House-Senate conference committee yesterday passed a bottle bill, clearing the way for a floor vote by each chamber.

If the Legislature passes the bill, Hawaii would begin rebating a nickel deposit on beverage containers in 2005 -- 25 years after a bottle bill was first proposed here.

The phased start "gives ample opportunity for the bottle industry to move existing stock and label containers with '5-cent deposit,'" said Gary Gill, deputy state health director.

House Bill 1256, Conference Draft 1, marks a compromise between bottle bill supporters, such as House sponsor Rep. Hermina Morita (D, East Maui-North Kauai), and lawmakers who had concerns about some aspects of the original bill.

Chief among changes to address those concerns were:

>> Shrinking the nonrefundable fee. The bill now proposes collecting a half-cent fee on beverage containers from October 2002 to October 2004 to build a start-up fund, then increasing the fee to 1 cent, with a provision to increase it to 1.5 cents only if necessary. The original fee was 2 cents.

>> Exempting rural Oahu and neighbor islands from a requirement to establish any new recycling centers. Morita said she hopes over the next two years that grocery stores will come to see how having a collection center could benefit them.

>> Requiring legislative and auditing oversight of the recycling program, and a committee to advise the state Health Department on rule-making that includes representatives of state and county governments, consumers, recyclers and the beverage industry.

>> Stating that the 5-cent refundable deposit would not be taxable when beverages are sold.

Gary Yoshioka, spokesman for the beverage industry group Hawaii Citizens for Comprehensive Recycling, could not be reached for comment on the bill yesterday, but said Thursday that the group does not back any form of a bottle bill.

"We're going to continue to advocate solutions that we think make sense," he said. Chief among those was the group's proposal to the legislature that county governments establish extensive recycling programs.

"I believe we're off to a good start. We cleared the first major hurdle," Morita said of the bill she has championed her entire legislative career.

Ads by the beverage coalition call the bottle bill a tax, Morita said. She disagrees.

"What we're really trying to do here is emphasize responsibility," she said. "As they move to using the cheaper plastic (for bottles) they're reaping a higher profit, but at the expense of the environment and the community."

---

Legislature Directory

Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes

Testimony by email: testimony@capitol.hawaii.gov
Include in the email the committee name; bill number;
date, time and place of the hearing; and number of copies
(as listed on the hearing notice.) For more information,
see http://www.hawaii.gov/lrb/par
or call 587-0478.