Hawaii’s HI-5 "bottle bill" program is a huge success.

Billions of beverage containers that would have been burned, dumped or littered have instead been recycled. Aluminum cans are made into new metal products. Plastic bottles get manufactured into new clothing and carpets. Glass is melted and turned into new bottles.

Our system has grown to include about 120 conveniently located recycling centers in every corner of the state. Hundreds of people are now employed statewide in private sector recycling jobs because of this program. It is also a great example of how a program works to protect the environment and support economic growth.

The HI-5 program is well managed and audited each year by the state Department of Health. Our budget and program is studied annually by the state Legislature. The state auditor reviewed the HI-5 program in 2005, 2008 and 2010 as required by law. Although only the 2005 audit has been released by the auditor, her office will be back to assess our program this August.

To guard against fraud or overcharging, the department performs its own audits of HI-5 redemption centers and private recyclers. And we send inspectors into the field to assure scales are calibrated and paperwork is properly maintained.

The finances of the HI-5 program are simple. A consumer pays 6 cents for each beverage container purchased. When the consumer takes his empty bottle to a recycler, he receives 5 cents back. The remaining penny recycling fee and the nickel redemptions not collected by consumers go to support the recycling program. These funds are used to pay the recycler up to 4 cents to collect, process and ship each container out of state to be re-manufactured.

The more people claim their deposit nickels, the fewer dollars are left to pay recyclers to handle the material. This business model was adopted from the beginning and is the standard nationwide. The 1-cent fee was kept low to avoid building a large surplus in the early years of the program. The law states that when the recycling rate reaches 70 percent, the 1-cent handling fee will go to 1.5 cents to cover the cost of collecting and recycling beverage containers.

For four years, DOH has resisted raising the fee even as the recycling rate climbed past the threshold in 2008 up to almost 79 percent. We announced last year that the fee would most likely go up this summer. Bottle distributors and retailers have known this was coming since the law was passed a decade ago. Raising the container fee by half a cent is a sign of the program’s success and was anticipated from Day One.

In 2011 the HI-5 program collected more than $55 million dollars. Of that amount, $35 million was returned to the public through redemptions. An additional $20 million was paid to recyclers to collect and recycle almost 700 million beverage containers. Nine employees manage this statewide program. Our direct program cost for salaries and benefits was about $600,000. In other words, DOH spends just over 1 percent of the cost of the program to pay state employees to make it all work. Taxpayers are getting their money’s worth with the HI-5 program.

Because of Hawaii’s HI-5 program, each year hundreds of millions of beverage containers, enough to fill up and overflow the volume of Aloha Stadium, are being recycled into new products. The HI-5 program results in less trash on our streets and beaches, and makes Hawaii a little more sustainable.