Bill on biodegradable bags hits snag over definitions

A Honolulu City Council committee is holding up a plan to make changes to the impending plastic bag prohibition on Oahu.

Councilman Stanley Chang, chairman of the Council Public Works and Sustainability Committee, said he and colleagues deferred Bill 38 last week because they want more time to study the potential impacts of the measure.

Introduced by Councilman Breene Hari­moto, the bill seeks to include bio­degradable bags among items to be banned from distribution at retailer checkout counters.

The original ordinance banning plastic checkout bags, which passed in 2012, granted an exemption for biodegradable bags.

The new bill also calls for pushing back the ban’s start date to Jan. 1, 2016, from the current July 1, 2015. The later start date aims to give merchants adequate time to deal with the change.

Environmental groups have pushed to include biodegradable bags in the ban, pointing out that most bags labeled "biodegradable" do not break down completely. Their decomposition yields small bits of material that can be harmful to sea turtles and other animals that ingest them.

Retailers and bag manufacturers are lobbying Council members to either leave the exemption on biodegrad­­able bags in place or to tweak a ban on bio­degradable bags so that what could be defined as compostable bags are exempt.

Chang said there continues to be conflicting information over which products can break down completely and whether compostable bags would be more beneficial to the environment than bags labeled as biodegradable. Some argue that language simply banning plastic bags would work and still allow certified compostable bags, which should not contain any plastic.

Some people who support the bill said they believe compostable bags are preferable to plastic, while others suggest compostable bags also are harmful. Compostable bags break down completely, but do so most effectively only when placed into a composting machine, manufacturers said.

City Deputy Environmental Services Director Tim Houghton said the city does not compost solid waste.

The city is expected to begin operating a composting facility sometime next year, Houghton said.

"But it’s really designed for green waste," he said. "It’s not designed for other waste." 

Even if compostable bags could be separated, Houghton said, he’s not certain the city’s composting facility could operate at a temperature that could break down the bags completely.

The Caldwell administration supports the bill and its intent to include biodegradable bags in the ban, he said. However, his staff has had difficulty coming up with a definition or standard pertaining to "biodegradable."

Chang said the deferral is temporary.

"It looks like we might need some additional time to iron out some of the definitions and the details … but I’m personally committed to passing out some version of this within the next several months."