Bill to require fees for checkout bags deferred

The Honolulu City Council deferred action on a bill Wednesday that would require retailers to charge a fee for checkout bags and ban so-called compostable plastic bags.

Several environmentalists advocating for a ban on plastic checkout bags maintained that Bill 59 does not go far enough to reduce litter and protect marine life. But some retailers contended that a fee would encourage customers to bring their own reusable sacks.

The bill would require retailers to charge at least 10 cents for reusable bags and recyclable paper bags. Businesses would keep the revenue generated from the fee.

Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga’s floor amendments, which were added to the bill, would also ban compostable plastic bags, mandate that police enforce the state’s litter control laws, and require the city auditor to “evaluate the efficacy” of the bag fee and other issues and submit a report to the Council by January 2019.

“This is really intended to try to strike a balance between some of the concerns that have been raised,” she said. “The minimum 10-cent fee is not intended to reimburse retailers for the cost of bags. It’s really to provide a uniform deterrent throughout the community that forces consumers to make conscious choices about whether to pay the fee and purchase a bag or whether to start bringing their own recyclable bags.”

But the bill, introduced by Councilman Brandon Elefante, initially sought to place tighter restrictions on Oahu’s plastic bag ban, which allows compostable plastic bags and reusable plastic bags that are at least 2.25 mils (2.25/1,000 of an inch) thick. The ban, which went into effect in July 2015, exempts plastic bags of all types for prepared baked goods, newspapers and other specific items. Hawaii became the first state to ban single-use plastic checkout bags in all counties.

Elefante had proposed amendments Wednesday that would have banned compostable plastic bags and phased out reusable plastic bags by 2020. He had proposed the same amendments at a Public Works, Infrastructure and Sustainability Committee meeting earlier this month, but those changes were not included in the draft that was passed out by Fuku- naga, the committee’s chairwoman. He said he plans to introduce his amendments again.

“Even though there’s provisions in there (Fukunaga’s draft) to require a study, it doesn’t go back to the root of the issue, which is to ban plastic bags,” Elefante said Thursday. “It doesn’t go far enough.”

Council Chairman Ron Menor said a final vote on the bill would be taken at next month’s meeting. The Council voted to approve amending the bill to Fuku- naga’s floor draft with a 5-4 vote.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Lauren Zirbel of the Hawaii Food Industry Association and Tina Yamaki of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii supported the fee proposal as a way to discourage customers from using single-use checkout bags. But they opposed any further cutbacks on plastic bags.

“This (fee) proposal is practical, viable and the preferred option instead of an outright ban on bags,” Yamaki said. “Consumers are already reusing plastic bags.”

But Jodi Malinoski of the Sierra Club of Hawaii Oahu Group said Elefante’s amendments would benefit both businesses, which would keep the revenue from the fee, and the environment.

“Unfortunately when the first bag ban happened, there were unintended consequences, that we allowed the thicker plastic bags to be given to customers,” Malinoski said. “We are compromising on this. The businesses will get to retain the (fee) for all the bags that they charge. But the intention of having a fee is so they can invest in paper bags, not to buy more plastic bags.”