STAND. COM. REP. NO. 604

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 751

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 751 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Establish statewide goals for solid waste reduction and organic waste diversion; and

(2) Require each county to incorporate into its next integrated solid waste management plan revision a plan to divert certain organic waste generated within the county in alignment with established state benchmarks.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Hawaiʻi Farmers Union; Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition; Climate Protectors Hawaiʻi; and two individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Office of the Mayor of the County of Maui and Department of Environmental Management of the County of Hawaiʻi. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that the Aloha+ Challenge established the goal to reduce by seventy percent the solid waste stream prior to disposal by 2030 through source reduction, recycling, bioconversion, and landfill diversion methods for organic waste. In order to help the State meet this goal, this measure establishes statewide benchmarks for solid waste reduction and organic waste diversion and requires the counties to incorporate these benchmarks into their integrated solid waste management plans.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that organic waste generators are required to divert material to any Department of Health approved facility;

(2) Changing the deadline for Tier 1 organic waste generators to January 1, 2027;

(3) Changing the deadline by which all organic wastes are banned from landfills and co-generation plants to January 1, 2040;

(4) Adding a definition for "compostable";

(5) Including compostable food packing and removing food-soiled paper from the definition of "organic waste";

(6) Changing the deadlines for the goals to reduce the solid waste stream prior to disposal by forty and seventy percent to January 1, 2027, and January 1, 2035, respectively;

(7) Removing organic waste landfill diversion from the methods specified for the reduction of the solid waste stream prior to disposal;

(8) Clarifying that the State's goal is to eliminate organic waste stream disposal via incineration, waste-to-energy, or landfill by 2040 and removing interim deadlines;

(9) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee notes that the benchmarks for organic waste generators are mandatory requirements and not reduction targets. Your Committee further notes that ensuring compliance with these benchmarks can be simplified by requiring haulers and processing facilities to report diversion rates, rather than mandating that each organic waste generator report tonnages. Your Committee also notes that further amendments may be needed to ensure that organic waste generators are authorized to use certain waste diversion methods, such as through food donation and turning organic waste into animal feed.

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. 751, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 751, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________

NICOLE E. LOWEN, Chair