Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 3096 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require a county with a population greater than five hundred thousand residents to implement a comprehensive recycling program that includes the curbside collection of recyclable goods as a component of the program.

The measure also appropriates an unspecified amount of funds as a grant-in-aid to the City and County of Honolulu for this purpose.

The Hawaii Chapter of the Sierra Club, Conservation Council of Hawaii, and the Windward Ahupuaa Alliance testified in support of this bill. A member of the Honolulu City Council supported the intent of this measure. The Department of Health and the City and County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services opposed the measure.

While your Committee respects the concept of homerule, your Committee believes that the City and County of Honolulu is not fully executing its responsibilities as required under chapter 342G, Hawaii Revised Statutes. If the City and County of Honolulu is unable to establish a viable waste management alternative to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill within the very near future, the resultant waste management crisis would not only affect the health and welfare of the general public, but also wreak significant adverse environmental consequences as well. Consequently, your Committee also believes that the only effective solution currently and readily available is an aggressive wastestream diversion program such as curbside recycling. Your Committee further believes that the implementation of a curbside recycling program will provide the City and County of Honolulu with more time to deal with its waste management problem, since the recyclable waste that would have gone to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill will be diverted under this program.

Your Committee also finds that the Honolulu City Council has made an overture through a resolution urging the Hawaii State Legislature to allow the one-cent deposit beverage container handling fee to be remitted to the counties for curbside recycling programs. Your Committee finds that this resolution is tantamount to the Honolulu City Council asking all consumers statewide to subsidize a City and County of Honolulu curbside recycling program that only benefits the single family dwellings or the one hundred thirty thousand households to whom the City and County of Honolulu offers trash pick-up service. Your Committee believes that those who directly benefit from the program should pay the costs of this service through property tax revenues or user fees. The burden of funding such a program should not be passed on, within the City and County of Honolulu or statewide, to those not receiving the service.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 3096 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.