STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1231

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

RE:   S.B. No. 1026

      S.D. 2

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 1026, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SOLID WASTE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to include the sixty-eight ounce beverage bottle in the State's deposit beverage container program.

     The measure also makes other amendments to strengthen the deposit beverage container program.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Sierra Club.  Reynolds Recycling and the University of Hawaii's Environmental Center offered comments.  The Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Hawaii and the Pepsi Bottling Group suggested amendments to the measure.  The Department of Health and the Hawaii Food Industry Association submitted testimony in opposition to the measure.

     Your Committee finds that the widespread use of sixty-eight ounce beverage bottles warrants their inclusion in the deposit beverage container program.  These two-liter sized containers have been sold in Hawaii for many years and are an ideal size for larger families and large gatherings.

     Your Committee also finds that this measure will strengthen the deposit beverage container program by furthering the State's efforts to not only facilitate solid waste management, but also to reduce or eliminate the littering of beverage containers in the State.

     Your Committee has amended the measure by:

     (1)  Allowing the Director of Health to temporarily suspend an automatic increase in the deposit beverage container fee if, after consultation with the Auditor, it is determined that the deposit beverage container deposit special fund is sufficiently funded;

     (2)  Allowing customers to request that the refund value of beverage containers be computed by container only if the consumer is redeeming not more than fifty containers of each material type per visit;

     (3)  Removing the proposed amendments to section 342G-115, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to reverse vending machine requirements, and instead exempting "steel or bi-metal cans or unique containers defined by rule" from the type of containers that reverse vending machines must accept;

     (4)  Changing the "phase in" period for the redemption of sixty-eight ounce containers from "July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008" to "December 1, 2007, to March 1, 2008"; and

     (5)  Changing the required hours of operation for redemption centers to at least thirty hours per week in high density population areas, of which not less than five hours shall be on a Saturday or Sunday.

     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 S.B. No. 1026, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1026, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Economic Development & Business Concerns.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection,

____________________________

HERMINA MORITA, Chair