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Bottle law will work better
as system evolves

Hawaii is the 11th state to implement refundable deposits on beverage containers. As experienced in the other 10 states, we expect to realize similar increases in recycling rates and reductions in litter. What's different and notable is that Hawaii's deposit program is a hybrid, designed by combining the best elements of U.S., Canadian and European systems.

Years of logjams in legislative efforts to pass bottle bills around the country prompted Hawaii's coalition to look closely at the retailer and beverage industry objections and to craft a more progressive system. As we work through some of the confusion during the startup period, some have been critical of our program's design elements. Please don't allow opponents to mislead you into believing that this law is somehow flawed or ill conceived. Our recycling companies need to gain experience with this new system, and some clunkiness at the beginning is normal.

Every state that has implemented a deposit system is benefiting from high recycling rates, significant reductions in litter, and has maintained more than 70 percent of public support after 20-30 years of operation, and every state experienced confusion and inefficiencies during the startup period. Convenience and program efficiencies will evolve over the first six months of operation here in Hawaii just as in these other states. There will be a greater number of redemption centers, the hours of operation will be extended as the companies hire more staff, and they will work out the kinks in their operations.

Our focus now is on further improving redemption center convenience with more locations. The one missing component in the law is a requirement for retailer participation, which legislators eliminated from the original draft under tremendous pressure from the retail industry. Hence, the limited number of redemption centers and the strain on the recycling industry.

We had hoped local retailers would step up voluntarily, motivated by marketing opportunity and customer service. Now it appears that it might be necessary to amend the law to require retailers to partner with recycling companies to set up more redemption centers.

Please lend your support and patience. The potential benefits to our islands are great.

Letters to the editor revealed numerous misconceptions about how the new deposit program operates. Below are some of the key facts:

» Curbside vs. deposits. Curbside collection and the deposit program are complementary systems -- we need both and more to get the job done.

» Calculate your costs. The one-cent, nonrefundable container fee supplements the pool of unredeemed deposit monies to fund the costs of running the redemption centers -- redemption center operators receive a two-cent handling fee per container. Do the math at 80 percent recovery rates on 800 million containers per year and you'll realize that the unredeemed deposits alone won't support program costs (all the states in the country average 80 percent recovery). Then calculate your family's costs based upon how many beverages you consume and consider whether you'd rather pay taxes for disposal and litter cleanup or for recycling and litter prevention.

» Nontaxable. The one-cent container fee and five-cent deposit are not subject to general excise tax.

» Rinse or don't rinse. Rinsing containers is recommended to maintain household sanitation. It is not required in order to redeem or recycle.

» Don't crush, for now. Once the nondeposit product clears the shelves, the state plans to lift the restriction on crushing.

» Count or weigh. You can request a count for accuracy or choose weighing for a quicker transaction for large quantities. The state is re-evaluating the weight-to-volume conversion tables provided to all the redemption centers and checking the sensitivity of their scales.

» Eight hundred million containers make a big difference. At 80 percent recovery, the deposit program is expected to recycle 50,000 tons of glass, plastic and aluminum.

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