HB1981

Report Title:

Waste Prevention; Telephone Directories; Delivery

Description:

Prohibits publishers of telephone directories from distributing directories without first obtaining prior authorization from intended recipients in the form of an affirmative confirmation expressing the recipient's willingness to accept delivery. Defines "telephone directory". Requires department of health to adopt rules.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1981
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that protecting the environment by conserving resources often finds popular expression in government recycling programs. However, what is less well known is that recycling is only one of three related conservation strategies. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, conservation of resources and energy through efficient management of resources consists of three elements:

(1) Reduction of the use of resources;

(2) Reuse of resources; and

(3) Recycling of resources.

The initial step in conservation is to reduce the amount of trash generated to be eventually discarded. This is called waste prevention or source reduction and is the most preferred strategy because it obviates the need to reuse or recycle resources in the first place. The second step is to reuse a product multiple times to reduce the need to generate more products, and thus more waste. The third step is to recycle resources once reuse becomes impossible.

The purpose of this Act is to promote the first strategy of resource conservation -- reduction of the use of resources -- by prohibiting a publisher of Hawaii telephone directories from delivering those directories to the publisher's intended recipients in the State without first obtaining confirmation from those recipients that they are, in fact, willing to receive delivery.

SECTION 2. Chapter 342G, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§342G- Telephone directories; distribution and delivery prohibited; when; definition; rules. (a) No publisher shall distribute or deliver any telephone directory to any individual, household, group, or business recipient in the State without first obtaining prior authorization from the intended recipient in the form of an affirmative confirmation expressing the recipient's willingness to accept delivery.

(b) For the purposes of this section, "telephone directory" means a printed and bound publication of any size purporting to contain a listing of the names and telephone numbers of all or most resident subscribers of telephone services of any county or counties within the State that includes publications commonly known as telephone white pages and telephone yellow pages.

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on January 1, 2009.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________