Oahu consumers and businesses would be eased into a plastic bag ban under a bill moving through the City Council.
The Public Works and Sustainability Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to advance a bill that would first impose a plastic bag fee on merchants, then prohibit the bags altogether at a yet-to-be determined time.
During the first phase, merchants would be charged 3 cents for each nonbiodegradable plastic bag they distribute to their customers at the points of sale. After that, the fee would go up to 5 cents.
(Many businesses would likely pass on the fee to customers.)
Fees collected would support the program and recycling efforts.
The third phase would ban the bags altogether.
Committee Chairman Stanley Chang said Bill 10, which now goes to the Council for a public hearing on April 25, still needs work. For instance, questions have been raised about the different types of bags on the market and how each affects the environment, he said.
A majority of Council members appear to support a gradual transition to a ban but "the length and the nature of that transition period is still not finalized," he said.
Across Punchbowl Street at the state Capitol, legislators could still pass a statewide per-bag fee this session, but Chang said the Council wants to proceed with its bill.
Council Chairman Ernie Martin, who co-introduced the bill with Council member Tulsi Gabbard, said Honolulu is the only county that does not ban or curtail the use of plastic bags. He said he doubts a statewide bill would be passed this legislative session.
City Environmental Services Director Tim Steinberger did not say where the Carlisle administration stands on the bill, but urged Council members to continue to work with businesses on a workable plan.
The bill received a lukewarm reception from the business community Wednesday.
Carol Pregill, president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, repeated her organization’s opposition to the ban. In jurisdictions that have bans, consumers will ask for paper bags, which cost five to 10 times as much, and also ask that their goods be double-bagged, she said. Such costs are invariably passed on to consumers, she said.
Representatives for Safeway, Foodland and Times supermarkets raised concerns about costs encountered on other islands with bans, and the Hawaii Food Industry Association raised similar reservations. They suggested that consumers who want plastic bags pay a fee directly, making it clear that retailers can recoup the cost of the bags.
Stella Yasuda said KYD Inc., the company where she works, sells plastic, paper and reusable bags. Yasuda said a ban would hurt the company.
She questioned the logic behind a plastic bag ban, saying that plastics burn more efficiently than paper at HPOWER, the city’s waste-to-energy facility.
"You need more fuel to burn wet paper so it doesn’t really make sense at all," she said.
Robert Harris, director of the Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter, said all "throw-away" bags have an effect on the environment.
He suggested the Council consider a ban on plastic bags and a fee on paper bags so that people would move toward reusable bags.
