Hawaii's county councils differ on whether to ban plastic shopping bags and the Legislature has been wary of the issue, but store owners should consider the model of the Marine Corps in solving the problem on their own, if they have not already done so. In this and other areas, the Marines in Hawaii are the vanguard in protecting the islands' environment.

At the beginning of 2009, the Marines stopped using plastic shopping bags and began using paper ones at their retail facilities at the Kaneohe base and stores at Manana housing in Pearl City and Camp Smith.

They took it a step further last month, crediting shoppers a nickel for each reusable bag brought or adding a nickel to the bill for every paper bag used.

Col. Robert Rice, the commander of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, says the policy is aimed at making Marines on the base “;lean, green fighting machines”; and energy self-sufficient by 2015.

Paper bag bans are to go into effect next January in Kauai and Maui. While Maui will prohibit all kinds of plastic bags, Kauai will allow biodegradable bags conforming with a European standard, containing no compounds derived from fossil fuels. Two years ago, then-acting Big Island Mayor Dixie Kaetsu, the county's managing director, vetoed a similar ban. Neither the Honolulu City Council nor the Legislature has approved such a ban.

The Kaneohe Marine base has budgeted nearly $13 million over two years on renewable energy and water-conservation projects and $50 million on a multifuel-capable generation plant and solar-array field to generate half of the base's energy needs.

The approach is consistent with a Pentagon environmental ethic present in all military branches' 425 facilities nationwide, prompting new programs over the past two decades. That came after President George H.W. Bush stripped the military of sovereign immunity from federal and state regulations and private citizens in 1989, allowing lawsuits prompted by environmental violations.

In recent years, the policy has grown impressively into an enthusiastic endeavor. The Kaneohe Marines began recycling used antifreeze, which is expected to save $30,000 a year in costs for waste disposal and buying more than 2,125 gallons of new products. The Kaneohe base also is the first U.S. military installation to recycle mattresses, contracting a Kalihi company to recycle 2,000 of the base's disposed mattresses.

“;We're looking across the entire installation, every facet of our operation, trying to determine where we can improve these processes to be more sustainable,”; Maj. Dave Huddock, the base's environmental director, told the Star-Bulletin's Gregg K. Kakesako.

The move toward green may have begun as a strategy to avoid legal battles but it has evolved into turning military bases into good neighbors. Marine Corps Base Hawaii exemplifies that change, and civilian stores in Hawaii should fall in step.