Report Title:

Beverage Containers Solution

WHEREAS, legislation was introduced this session to establish a beverage container fee, deposit and redemption system; and

WHEREAS, while Oahu recycles only twenty percent of its beverage containers through its voluntary recycling programs, the ten states and one city that have beverage container deposits achieve eighty percent recycling rates; and

WHEREAS, although beverage containers comprise only four percent of the waste stream by weight, it is probably the most visible, making up forty to sixty percent of total litter nationwide; and

WHEREAS, the trend in the beverage industry toward single serve containers, packaged for people on the move, makes curbside recycling ineffective and expensive for its small recapture rate; and

WHEREAS, if each one of the six million annual visitors to Hawaii should consume one beverage while sightseeing at our beaches or in our parks, it would equate to six million beverage containers not captured by curbside recycling; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii's solid waste management system currently places the responsibility of managing solid waste on state and county governments; and

WHEREAS, a beverage container deposit system would share the responsibility between the beverage industry, the consumer, and government; and

WHEREAS, a beverage container deposit system has received strong support from State and County agencies, various environmental and community organizations, and the general public; and

WHEREAS, the beverage industry has strongly opposed such a system, and instead indicated to the Legislature its desire to design a comprehensive implementation plan to address various solid waste management issues, instead of focusing solely on beverage containers; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, that beverage industry leaders develop a plan at their expense to increase recycling rates of beverage containers; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this plan be efficient, cost-effective, applicable statewide, and achieve acceptable recycling targets; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this plan be submitted to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the commencement of the Regular Session of 2002; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Director of the Department of Health, the Office of Solid Waste Management, the Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, and representatives of the beverage industry.