Bolstered by the passage of a similar measure on Maui, the Hawaii County Council on Friday moved an amended version of a bill banning polystyrene foam food containers to the Environmental Management Commission.
The measure, Bill 13, will return to the council later this summer for further action on first reading. If passed, it would go into effect July 1, 2019, with an educational program initiated that January.
Maui鈥檚 bill, passed unanimously by that council and signed last month by Mayor Alan Arakawa, goes into effect Dec. 31, 2018. This makes Maui the first county in the state to pass a ban, while Hawaii County has been struggling with it for several years.
Puna Councilwoman Eileen O鈥橦ara, the bill sponsor, asked that the bill go to the Environmental Management Commission, whose members previously complained they鈥檇 had no input. O鈥橦ara had led an ad hoc committee of stakeholders after the bill bogged down on a split vote last year.
Testifiers have been overwhelmingly in favor of the ban.
The only testifier opposed to the measure Friday was Joy Gold, who represents an Oahu foam food container manufacturer.
She said the ban doesn鈥檛 make sense because the county doesn鈥檛 have a compost facility to handle the compostable alternatives. In fact, she said, the polystyrene foam containers are seen as a valuable feedstock for waste-to-energy plants such as one in the works for a site near the Puuanahulu landfill in West Hawaii.
Gold said East Hawaii businesses buy 80 percent locally distributed polystyrene and 20 percent compostable or other paper-based products. The opposite is true in West Hawaii. Foam food containers account for less than 1 percent of waste in Big Island landfills, she said.
She said compostable products can cost $40 to $65 more a case containing 200 to 500 units.
鈥淪maller mom and pop operators must outlay cash to purchase cases of product in advance of sales,鈥� she said in testimony. 鈥淭his impacts thin profit margins and raising the cost of plate lunches is not always a competitive option.鈥�
Other testifiers disagreed.
State Sen. Russell Ruderman, D-Puna, speaking as an individual, said it鈥檚 been more than 18 years since his Island Naturals stores opened, using almost no polystyrene food containers.
鈥淚鈥檝e been watching with humor as folks say we can鈥檛 do it,鈥� Ruderman said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 fear-mongering that鈥檚 been going on. It鈥檚 not reality.鈥�
Steve Hirakami, director of Hawaii Academy of Arts &Science Public Charter School, disputed figures provided by opponents. He said his school switched from foam to alternative containers for its 637 students after he saw prices dropping because of more competition among manufacturers.
While the containers once cost an average of 34 cents compared to 11 or 12 cents for foam, the price has now dropped to 18 cents, he said.
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