See the post above for the latest details. -PFK 4/4/2012
Aloha, Get the definitive summary here and get busy testifying! Click on the Bill Numbers below to see the full text of the bill. Click on the Status links to see most recent updates and submit testimony.
We’ll update this post regularly. We encourage you to follow along with our pal Leilei Joy Shih at the Opala section of the Hawaii Sierra Club’s new Capitol Watch Blog. You can even sign up for emailed updates! Also check out this great post "5 questions (and answers) about plastic bag bills" by our partner James Koshiba of Kanu Hawaii.Please take a careful look at the bills and give us your feedback. We share our initial thoughts below each bill in turn. Mahalo!
SB2511 RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. Deferred but STILL ALIVE in new form, See the post above
SB2511 RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. Deferred but STILL ALIVE in new form, See the post above
Requires businesses in the State to collect a fee for single-use checkout bags provided to a customer. Allows businesses to keep twenty per cent of the fees for the first year of the program and ten per cent of the fees thereafter, subject to income and general excises taxes. Requires fees to be collected on single-use checkout bags not prohibited by county ordinance. Deposits $800,000 annually of fees into a special account in the general fund for costs relating to the single-use checkout buy fee, $11,000,000 into the natural area reserves fund, and the remainder into the general fund. Requires reports to the legislature.
Status:
HB 2260 RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. DEFERRED | 3/16/2012 | H | Bill scheduled to be heard by ERB on Tuesday, 03-20-12 8:30AM in House conference room 312. (COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION & BUSINESS) |
We support HB 2260 and its partner bill SB 2511. Sierra and Surfrider argue that the above bills (with the fee) will fund important watershed restoration projects and are the ones they really want to push. Further, these bills already have DLNR and retail support. Volunteers have supported the measure with testimony and rallies. Details at Capitol Watch.
Requires businesses in the State to collect a fee for single-use checkout bags provided to a customer. Allows businesses to keep twenty per cent of the fees for the first year of the program and ten per cent of the fees thereafter, subject to income and general excises taxes. Requires fees to be collected on single-use checkout bags not prohibited by county ordinance. Deposits $800,000 annually of fees into a special account in the general fund for costs relating to the single-use checkout buy fee, $11,000,000 into the natural area reserves fund, and the remainder into the general fund. Requires reports to the legislature.
Status:
Hear Me Out! Don’t Let the Resuscitated Bag Bill Get Left Behind.
| 2/21/2012 | H | Since the House did not vote to adopt the HD2 reported from ERB, it is the HD1 that has been re-referred to FIN. |
Hear Me Out! Don’t Let the Resuscitated Bag Bill Get Left Behind.
HB2821 RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. DEFERRED
Requires businesses in the State to collect a 10-cent fee for each single-use checkout bag provided to a customer, with certain exceptions. Subject to income and general excise taxes, allows businesses to keep 20% of the fees collected from 1/1/13 to 12/31/13 and 10% thereafter. Requires fees to be collected on paper bags in counties that currently have ordinances banning plastic bags. Authorizes 20% of the fees collected to be expended by DOH for clean water projects. Authorizes 60% of the fees collected from 1/1/13 to 12/31/13, and 70% thereafter, to be expended by DLNR for watershed protection. Takes effect 1/1/2013.
Status: 1/27/2012 H Referred to EEP/WLO, ERB, FIN, referral sheet 9
HB 2821 is also a good bill, but may not get momentum. The first two definitely do. All 3 bills above place a fee on both plastic and paper, will put a fee on paper on neighbor islands but retain the in-place plastic bag bans, and will fund the Watershed Initiative programs.
SB2932 RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION DEFERRED
Requires a business to provide only biodegradable plastic, paper, or reusable bags as checkout bags to customers; prohibits a business from providing non-biodegradable single-use plastic checkout bags to customers; establishes an unspecified fine for each violation.
Status: 1/27/2012 S Passed First Reading, Referred to ENE/EDT, WAM.
SB 2932 is a plastic bag ban. We love and support bans! Food for thought, however, this would completely ignore paper. Sierra and Surfrider argue a plastic fee on Oahu with bans on neighbor islands, and fees on paper everywhere is better for environmental concerns. Again, we welcome your feedback on this issue!
SB2364 RELATING TO FUNDING FOR WATERSHED PROTECTION. DEFERRED
Requires businesses in the State to collect a 10-cent fee for each single-use checkout bag provided to a customer, with certain exceptions. Subject to income and general excise taxes, allows businesses to keep 20% of the fees collected from 1/1/13 to 12/31/13 and 10% thereafter. Requires fees to be collected on paper bags in counties that currently have ordinances banning plastic bags. Authorizes 20% of the fees collected to be expended by DOH for clean water projects. Authorizes 60% of the fees collected from 1/1/13 to 12/31/13, and 70% thereafter, to be expended by DLNR for watershed protection. Takes effect 1/1/2013.
Status: 1/23/2012 S Passed First Reading, Referred to EDT/ENE/WLH, WAM.
As for SB 2364- the companion to HB 2821 above --, we fear it may be deferred because of failures in title, etc. and as the other bills gain more momentum.
HOW TO Give Testimony:
The new capitol.hawaii.gov website makes it easy to get your voice heard in a testimonial letter and will tell you how to make a stand in person at public hearings. Click on the “Status” links above. A simple, quick “I support this measure” will help our cause.
OR here’s some sample testimony to build on. Make it your own and add specific details that you support about each bill.
I am writing to comment in support of Bill -----. Regulating single-use plastic bags (and paper bags) will help make Hawaii a model state for sustainable change.
Hawaii, especially Oahu, is at a crucial moment for waste management. Despite the efforts of the H-Power waste-to-energy program, high rates of recycling, and a high landfill diversion rate, our facilities and landfills are overwhelmed. Legislating source reduction and behavior changing regulation is the targeted solution.
The harmful cost of single-use plastics stretches from the oil it takes to produce it, to the health of the consumer, to the cost of disposal, and finally to the marine ecosystems it wrecks. Plastic is a material that the Earth cannot digest. Once discarded in the environment, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller particles. Patches of plastic pollution cover millions of square miles of ocean near Hawaii. Tragically, this plastic also ends up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals. Moreover, the creation and distribution of plastic products increases our polluting carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. The U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic bags each year, requiring 12 million barrels of oil to produce, and less than 5% are ever recycled.
Reusable bags allow new avenues for marketing and save the retailer and consumer money. Reusable cloth and nylon bags can be purchased for a dollar (sometimes free) and used for years and years. Consumers actually pay hidden costs for so-called free bags. Further, reducing the consumption of single-use plastic bags will bring in money for our state and save money in clean-up costs. The taxpayer cost to subsidize the recycling, collection, and disposal of plastic and paper bags is more than the cost of the bag.
Our taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize the cost of waste. Much of this money could be redirected to benefit our state. Similar laws have been passed worldwide and have proven to be successful. For example, when Washington D.C. instituted its recent five-cent fee, bag use declined from an average of 22.5 million per month to 3 million in the very first month, and fees generated about $150,000 for use by the city.
This bill effectively addresses the issue of plastic pollution by positively changing consumer behavior, decreasing external costs, and decreasing the amount of waste Hawaii produces.
Mahalo for the opportunity to testify on this matter.NAME, ADDESS, EMAIL, PHONE
Learn more about the HI Legislative Process at the links above and at the Hawaii Public Access Room. Also check out a replay of Legislature 101 on KanuHawaii.org.
Other Opala bills of interest this session:
Other Opala bills of interest this session:
SB2473 RELATING TO HEALTH. Prohibits the sale, distribution, or procurement of products or packaging containing certain toxic chemicals. Establishes a preference for the procurement of polyvinyl chloride-free intravenous products by the Hawaii health systems corporation.
SB2824 RELATING TO THE DEPOSIT BEVERAGE CONTAINER PROGRAM.Removes the exemption for dietary supplements from the deposit beverage container program. Excellent bill putting energy drinks and vitamin water into the redemption program. Could garner $3 million.-See Leilei's post.
SB2824 RELATING TO THE DEPOSIT BEVERAGE CONTAINER PROGRAM.Removes the exemption for dietary supplements from the deposit beverage container program. Excellent bill putting energy drinks and vitamin water into the redemption program. Could garner $3 million.-See Leilei's post.
Already deferred:
HB 1828 RELATING TO SINGLE-USE PLASTIC CHECKOUT BAGS.
Imposes a tax on each single-use plastic checkout bag distributed to a customer by a business, to be paid by the customer. Creates the single-use plastic bag special fund. Exempts certain counties from the tax.
Status: 1/26/2012 H The committee(s) on EEP recommend(s) that the measure be deferred.
