A measure exempting compostable products from an upcoming Oahu plastic bag ban won key approval from a Honolulu City Council committee Wednesday while a bill requiring takeout containers to be more environmentally friendly was shelved in favor of more study.

The actions came after lengthy discussion before the Council’s Public Works and Sustainability Committee.

Bill 38 initially sought to add biodegradable bags to the list of items that would not be allowed under the plastic bag ban set to begin next July 1. But it has gone through several iterations.

After the Department of Environmental Services said it was having difficulty coming up with a definition for a biodegradable bag, bill author Breene Harimoto had the measure amended to cover all plastic bags.

But the version that advanced Wednesday, introduced by Council Chairman Ernie Martin, allows what are defined and labeled as "compostable plastic bags" to be distributed at retail counters.

The latest draft, which now goes to the full Council for a final vote, was applauded as a common sense compromise by plastic bag manufacturers, the Hawaii Retailers Association and the Hawaii Food Industry Association, and retailers.

But environmental interests, including the Surfrider Foundation and Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii, criticized it because they say compostable bags are still harmful to the environment, especially to sea turtles that mistake them for jellyfish and then eat them.

Tim Houghton, deputy environmental services director for the city, said the city administration prefers an outright plastic bag ban as proposed by Harimoto, but said the latest draft is more amenable than the original bill because a compostable bag is more easily definable.

The original plastic bag ban, introduced by Martin, was approved in April 2012. Hawaii and Maui counties have similar bans.

The committee voted 3-1 to approve it. Councilman Ron Menor voted against it, saying he shared Harimoto’s concerns that it would have no impact.

Meanwhile, the committee voted to defer action on Bill 40, which called for takeout food containers made from polystyrene to be banned and for disposable containers to be made from compostable products. The committee instead sent to the full Council Resolution 14-175, which calls on the administration to study the use and impacts of single-use food service containers.

Like the plastic bag bill, the foam container bill also has gone through several changes as the Council and city officials tried to find a consensus on what constitutes a plastic container and what type of container would be OK for the environment.

Public Works Chairman Stanley Chang submitted a draft Wednesday clarifying that the only disposable food containers allowed would be those made of compostable material or recyclable plastic with the recycling symbols 1 and 2.

Houghton said the administration neither supports nor opposes the bill but has major concerns about who would determine which containers would be allowed and barred.

The administration instead supports the resolution, which was authored by Ann Kobayashi. Kobayashi also authored Bill 40 with Chang.

Food container manufacturers and the same business organizations that testified against a total ban on plastic bags also raised objections to the foam container bill, calling it a major burden for businesses.

Bill supporters said a study did not go far enough and some criticized Council members for unjustly prioritizing business interests over environmental concerns.