WAILUKU — Would customers pay an extra 15 or 25 cents to eat a plate lunch out of an environmentally friendly plastic clamshell?

Some say yes, some no. But Glenn Horiuchi, who sells plastic food containers on Oahu, told a Maui County Council committee yesterday that in a real-life experiment, the answer seemed to be no.
The Infrastructure Management Committee is considering a bill that would outlaw polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam, with few exceptions. After listening to 90 minutes of testimony, committee members agreed the idea needs more study. They asked the county Environmental Management Department to inquire, especially into the experience of other municipalities, like Portland, Ore., that have already tried it.
The Styrofoam plate lunch box and coffee cup may be an endangered species. Even Horiuchi said so. But he pleaded for more time to let manufacturers bring new plastic resins made from corn or soybeans on line.
"We're really on the verge of a revolution," said Horiuchi, who is chief operating officer of K. Yamada Distributors, which owns Hawaii Foam Products, the only manufacturer in the Islands of cheap plastic plates.
Cheap is the key word. Biodegradable and compostable alternatives are available now, but Harry Nakagawa of Maui Chemical & Paper Products, which sells Horiuchi's and other food containers, said the cost spread is around 15 cents an item, depending on size, now.
Horiuchi predicted that the even better substitutes on the horizon will be even more expensive.
Committee member Wayne Nishiki said he was surprised that the cost difference was so much. He believed it was "merely pennies."
On the side of the ban, Brooke Porter, conservation director of the Pacific Whale Foundation, shook up a gallon jug of water mixed with tiny particles of polystyrene. One of the problems, she said, is that the microscopic bits attract oily chemicals in the ocean, acting as "bioaccumulators of hydrophobic toxins." After shaking, the water and the hydrophobic bits separated.
Plankton eat the tiny bits, along with the polychlorinated biphenyls and other stuff that adheres to them, which are passed up the food chain.
"Considering commerce and human health, the marine ecosystems are a resource worth protecting," she said.
The Pacific Whale Foundation switched to biocompostable products on its tour boats in 2006, she said.
While testifier Ane Takaha said she was sure that Mauians would pay the extra 15 cents or so, if they were informed of the reason, Horiuchi was not so sure. He said a health food store in east Honolulu had bought a case of his biodegradable containers six months ago, offering them as an alternative to Styrofoam for an extra 25 cents. The store has not had to reorder yet.
There was also discussion of what biodegradable means. Lauren Zirbel of the Hawaii Food Service Association said nothing degrades in a modern landfill. Landfills are designed to prevent degradation, she said. The biocompostable items can be degraded, but only by heating in an industrial composting operation. There is none on Maui and only one on Oahu.
Even that one only takes clean polystyrene.
Polystyrene can also be burned as a boiler fuel, as is accepted by H-POWER, but there is no trash-to-energy plant in Maui County.
Joe Souki, speaking for the American Chemistry Council and not, he told the committee, as a state legislator, said: "Simply banning polystyrene will not reduce litter. It just changes the type of litter."
Committee Vice Chairman Joe Pontanilla said he was encouraged that plate lunch sellers can look forward to a less troublesome container "sometime," but the committee seemed to think that it could be a while.
The draft bill, introduced by Council Member Mike Victorino, who was absent, had envisaged a changeover by mid-2011.