STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1130

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 751

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 751, H.D. 2, entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

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

(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; and

(3) Appropriate funds.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board No. 34, Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition, Climate Protectors Hawaiʻi, Green Party of Hawaiʻi, Kauai Climate Action Coalition, Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action, Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United, and twenty-nine individuals.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Health and Department of Environmental Management of the County of Hawaiʻi.

Your Committees find that actionable steps are necessary to help the State meet its Aloha+ Challenge goal to reduce, by seventy percent, the solid waste stream by 2030. Your Committees recognize that diverting organic waste, including food waste, from the solid waste stream would not only reduce the generation of methane in state landfills, but also minimize the State's need for more landfill space. Your Committees further recognize that reducing and preventing food waste can increase food security, foster productivity and economic efficiency, promote resource and energy conservation, and address climate change, which in turn, could also decrease climate change-related shocks to the supply chain.

According to testimony received by your Committees, diverting compostable food packaging away from landfills and co-generation plants is premature as additional data is necessary to better understand the contaminant level of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in food packaging and the impact these substances may have on crops grown in compost generated with compostable food packaging. Amendments to this measure are therefore necessary to address this issue.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting "compostable food packaging" from the definition of "organic waste";

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

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 751, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 751, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs,

________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair