The beverage container deposit bill passed in the House and was sent to the Senate yesterday with bipartisan support.
Eight of the House’s 19 Republicans cast the only votes against the legislation, House Bill 1256 House Draft 2. The bill calls for enactment of requirements for deposits for glass, aluminum and plastic beverage containers. The bill’s present form does not include the amount of deposits; those figures would be inserted later, perhaps in a House-Senate conference committee.
The beverage industry opposes the legislation. In an effort to deal with industry objections, supporters of the bill have scheduled a meeting Monday with industry representatives to "see if we can better understand each others’ positions," said Rep. Mina Morita, D-12th (East Maui, North Kaua‘i).
Morita and others who support the bottle bill have drafted language that would give the industry one year to come up with a better way of promoting recycling, or the bottle bill would go into effect.
The bottling industry is understandably reluctant to be put under that kind of pressure, but says it is willing to help improve recycling rates. "We believe that we have an opportunity to work together to have a more comprehensive proposal than what’s in the bottle bill," said Gary Yoshioka, general manager of Pepsi Bottling Group of Hawai‘i.
The industry approach is to try to improve recycling of a larger portion of the waste stream than just beverage containers.
Yoshioka said he is working with a team of individuals from industry to try to get a program developed. But he said the industry doesn’t want to do it alone.
"We hope to develop a comprehensive solution by working cooperatively with government," he said.
Recycling organizations say they are pleased with the industry’s support. "Everyone agrees that more recycling should be pursued. We seem to disagree only on the method that should be employed," said Suzanne Jones, Honolulu’s recycling coordinator.
Container deposit laws have been strongly opposed by the beverage industry.
"The industry is adamantly against it. Too expensive," said Richard Botti, director of the Hawai‘i Food Industry Association.
County recycling agencies said they have tried alternatives to container deposit laws and found that they were less effective or more expensive than a bottle bill.
"Through all of our recycling efforts and programs on O‘ahu, we were able to achieve a 36 percent recycling rate for 1999," Jones said.
This year, "all of the counties, state agencies, recycling industry and environmental organizations say that the bottle bill is the way to effectively increase recycling and reduce litter," she said.
