Question: My family and I have done the HI-5 recycling from its onset. We were pleased when the recycling centers started accepting non-HI-5 glass bottles. Four cents a pound was not much, but was a little reward for the collecting, storing and hauling involved. It also let my blue recycling container more adequately handle paper, cardboard, etc. But when I hauled my recyclables to the center in Hawaii Kai, I was dismayed that the 60 pounds of glass bottles garnered only 60 cents instead of the $2.40 I was expecting. The payback has been reduced to 1 cent a pound. Did officials overseeing this program approve this reduction?
Answer: While the state Department of Health oversees the HI-5 Deposit Beverage Container Program (www.hi5deposit.com), it is the city Department of Environmental Services that administers the nondeposit glass recycling program on Oahu.
The city also set — and reduced — the incentive payments to recyclers, based on funding it receives from the Health Department through the Glass Advance Disposal Fee Program.
The Glass Advance Disposal Fee Program is meant to support the recycling of non-HI-5 glass in the state. However, the money collected for the program was in one of the special funds raided by the state Legislature to help make up for budget shortfalls.
Because of that, the city hasn’t been receiving its share of the glass recycling money since fiscal year 2010, forcing it to reduce its payment rate to recyclers and hence to consumers.
The city did not receive its share of funds in fiscal years 2010 and 2012, while the funds it received in fiscal year 2011 “were insufficient to cover the cost of the payouts to the recyclers,” said Suzanne Jones, chief of the Recycling Branch for Environmental Services.
The Advance Disposal Fee, established under Section 342G-82 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, requires importers of glass containers to pay a fee on containers, excepting drinking glasses, cups, bowls, plates, ashtrays and similar tempered-glass containers.
Since September 1994, the fee has been 1.5 cents per container. Since October 2004 the fee has been applied only to non-glass-deposit beverage containers.
Containers for wine and spirits; food, such as condiments; and for nonfood products such as nail polish, fragrances and cleaning supplies primarily make up non-HI-5 glass, said Darren Park, coordinator of the Department of Health’s Office of Solid Waste Management.
All Advance Disposal Fee funds collected are allocated to each county, proportional to their population, he said.
The City and County of Honolulu was asked “if we would be willing to forgo our distribution so that the other counties could receive adequate funds,” and it agreed, Jones said, because it meant that the limited funds could go to the other, smaller counties to support their programs.
“Honolulu had some reserves in its fund, which we could utilize to maintain glass recycling on Oahu,” she explained.
Jones said she believes “there will be a large reduction in that facet of Hawaii’s recycling program.”
Park was more optimistic, saying, “The future of the ADF Program should be sound as long as legislative raids can be avoided.”
Glass container importers replenish the fund every year, he said, and there is about $900,000 that will be transferred to the counties for fiscal year 2013.
Mahalo
To a kind man. On a rainy night I realized my windshield wipers were really bad, so I went to Walmart to buy new ones and change them right away. But in the parking lot I had trouble putting them on. I saw a young boy in the car next to me and asked him for help. He tried but could not put them on. I then saw a man waiting by his truck. I asked him for help. He came and put them on the right way. I offered to pay him, but he said, “No, that’s OK.” For a male it might seem like a small thing, but for a lady in distress it meant a lot. May the good you do come back to you. — Lady In Former Distress
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