Isle retailers, Sierra Club
square off over bottle billMerchants argue that refunding
surcharges for recyclable containers
is too burdensome
Hawaii retailers opted this week to continue to oppose mandatory recycling of glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers through a return-of-deposit program.
In response, a leading environmental protection group said the retailers are trying to sabotage the "bottle bill" at the expense of the environment.
Retail Merchants of Hawaii, a statewide retail-industry trade association, had a daylong meeting on the subject in Honolulu Wednesday.
The consensus was that the bill, which provides for a 5-cent surcharge on containers, repayable when the cans or bottles are turned in for recycling, is needlessly costly and burdensome for the retailers.
Carol Pregill, president of the retail trade association, said retailers are concerned about the environment and agree with the basic aim of such laws, but worry it would cost them too much and not work as well as some other programs, such as the city's curbside recycling pickup trial program in Mililani.
"Hawaii, and Oahu in particular, needs a more comprehensive program," Pregill said. Some retailers would be exempt from the bottle bill because of their size or location, she said. Others would have to become their own redemption centers, taking in bottles and cans and compacting them, she said.
That is unfair, she said, because of the manpower and equipment costs. Another issue is sanitation, how to deal with whatever comes out of the used containers, said Pregill.
"Research has indicated that beverage bottles are 2 percent of the waste stream. If you look at the expense (of receiving, sorting and recycling them), it is not efficient," she said.
The Sierra Club, an environmental group that supports the bottle bill, said some of the retailers' arguments are specious.
For example, there will be arrangements for retailers who become redemption centers to be paid for their work.
And there is a business plus for stores that have their customers coming back to get their 5 cents-a-can deposit returned, said Jeff Mikulina, director of the Sierra Club's Hawaii chapter. "They'll buy something else," he said.
Mikulina said the Sierra Club agrees with curbside pickups of recyclable materials from home, but thinks the bottle bill also is necessary.
"Bottle bills work. They provide a real incentive for people to recycle, and an incentive not to litter. The 10 states with bottle bills found bottle and can litter has virtually disappeared," he said.
The bill is due for amendments in the coming session of the Legislature, to be followed by a rule-making process that is intended to have the measure in effect at the start of 2005.