Posted on: Friday, April 27, 2001

Bottle deposit bill dead this session

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

The bottle deposit bill failed to make it out of conference committee in the Legislature, but it prompted the beverage industry to launch a study on alternative ways to promote recycling and reduce litter.

Rep. Mina Morita, D-12th (N. Kaua'i, E. Maui), who sponsored the bill, said it could be brought back in next year's legislative session.

She said the House leadership moved to avoid a vote on the measure when it appeared it might not have enough support to be approved.

Morita said the beverage industry, which lobbied hard to defeat beverage container deposit legislation, has committed to pay for a $120,000 study to find alternate means of significantly reducing the amount of refuse that enters the landfills and the litter on the highways.

If the study does not find an effective way of reducing trash, the bottle bill is still an option, said Honolulu city recycling coordinator Suzanne Jones.

This session's bottle bill had support from the county governments, the state Health Department, the recycling industry and environmental groups.

"We all want more recycling, a lot less litter and a clean, beautiful Hawai'i. There's no doubt that the deposit system will deliver such benefits," Jones said in a last-minute e-mail to legislators and supporters of the bill.

Polls suggest beverage container deposit has strong public support nationwide, and at a recent Earth Day event Hawai'i residents indicated simular support, said Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter director Jeff Mikulina.

"It was the most popular petition at our Earth Day table last weekend," Mikulina said. "It fails because of aggressive industry lobbying."

Morita said members of the public might want to direct their lobbying efforts at the industry instead of the Legislature.

"People need to let the grocers know how they feel," she said. "They need to let the big beverage companies know."