STAND. COM. REP. NO. 252

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 698

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Transportation and International Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 698 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ROADWAY MATERIALS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make the purchase by state and county agencies of certain roadway materials with a minimum recycled glass content discretionary, rather than mandatory.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Grace Pacific Corporation and Alakona Corporation.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the City and County of Honolulu, Department of Design and Construction.

     Under current law, state agencies are required to purchase certain roadway materials made with a minimum recycled glass content of ten percent crushed aggregate recycled glass in basecourse paving materials and one hundred percent aggregate in nonstructural capital improvement applications.  However, your Committee finds that this requirement (sometimes referred to as the "glassphalt mandate") may have the following negative impacts:

     (1)  It reduces the quality of roads in Hawaii;

     (2)  It impairs the paving industry's ability to recycle asphalt pavements; and

     (3)  It results in a higher carbon footprint than if glass were shipped to the mainland to be recycled into new glass products.

     In addition, your Committee believes that there may be other more economical and eco-friendly uses for recycled glass that have been discovered since the enactment of this provision in 1994. 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to allow for further discussion; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and International Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 698, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 698, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation and International Affairs,

____________________________

J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair