Sierra Club resists delay in bottle bill
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
The Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter is urging lawmakers to reject legislation that would delay the "bottle bill" law scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1.
The bill, in essence, places a 6-cent redemption fee on the sale of most beverage containers up to 64 ounces made of aluminum, plastic, glass or other material. Customers would be able to return each bottle for a 5-cent refund. The remaining penny per bottle would go toward covering the costs of the program.
Jeff Mikulina, director of the Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter, yesterday said the beverage industry is pushing for an extension of six months to a year in hopes of coming back to a newly reconstituted Legislature next year that might repeal the bottle bill, passed in 2002.
The industry's stated purpose for an extension is to ensure they have the time to comply when the law takes effect. But Mikulina displayed bottles, from three different beverage companies, he recently purchased that show "HI, 5¢."
"They're eight months ahead of schedule," Mikulina said. "This speaks volumes."
Bottle bill supporters, who joined Mikulina at a news conference yesterday, also noted that recycling companies have been planning to put in dozens of redemption centers throughout the state.
Anheuser Busch Companies lobbyist Tim Lyons yesterday said the call for an extension is legitimate since the Department of Health has yet to formally issue rules for implementation of the bottle bill. "The fact that some companies may be putting it on now is a gamble on their part," he said. "The rules may wind up reading differently when they come out."
From the time the rules are formally adopted, it would take an additional six months to a year for companies to move through existing stock and have new labels ready for their bottles, Lyons said.
But Jennifer Tosaki, recycling coordinator with the Health Department's Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch, said beverage industry officials who have asked for advice have been told to proceed with creating new labels based on what is already in the 2002 statute — either the name of the state or the symbol "HI" along with the words "5¢ deposit."
"It's nothing new; we're just following what the other states are doing," she said, adding that the rules are meant to be flexible.
The key additional requirement in the draft rules is that the lettering for the labeling be at least one-eighth of an inch, something that also would be addressed in a bill now moving through the Legislature, Tosaki said. That information is also being passed on to beverage industry officials, she said.
Lyons acknowledged that a delay would give the beverage industry time to lobby lawmakers to repeal the bill next year but he stopped short of stating it would do so.
"We've never made a secret of the fact that we don't like the bill," he said. "It's not because we don't like recycling; it's because it's an ineffective and inefficient way to do it for the money that's spent for what you get in return."
The proposed conference draft of Senate Bill 1611 does not include an across-the-board six-month delay for implementation, but gives retailers six additional months to set up certified redemption centers. Lyons and other supporters of the beverage industry want to make the extension across-the-board.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
