Honolulu City Councilman Brandon Elefante said Wednesday he wants to revisit the city’s plastic bag ban with a new bill that he says will make it more difficult for retailers to hand out “reusable” plastic bags.
“Our current law doesn’t go far enough in terms of having a paradigm shift or change in customers’ mindsets to reduce, reuse and recycle in the sense that they bring their own cloth bags or recyclable bags to the store and (in turn) reduce the amount of plastic type of waste that could potentially be out there harming our environment,” Elefante said Wednesday.
Bill 59, which will get its first public airing at Wednesday’s City Council meeting in Kapolei, would change the existing plastic bag ban by:
>> Making it illegal to distribute so-called “compostable” plastic bags at the checkout counter.
>> Requiring so-called “reusable” plastic bags be at least 3 mils (3/1,000 of an inch) thick, rather than the 2.25 mils now allowed.
Maui and Hawaii counties require that reusable bags be at least 3 mils, Elefante said, and the Honolulu measure would allow Oahu retailers that option if they want to continue to provide customers with such bags.
As is the case today,
the bill would still allow for businesses to hand out plastic bags of all types to protect or transport prepared foods, beverages, bakery goods, newspapers, live fish and other specific items.
“Essentially, it’s to strengthen what we currently have now while also moving our city forward and being much more sustainable and also lessen the impacts they may have on our marine life and coral life,” Elefante said. Recognizing that the subject is a touchy one for business interests and environmental advocates alike, he said he’s not wedded to the current language and wants to be open to whatever ideas are offered during public discussions.
The bill won praise from Kahi Pacarro, executive director of the nonprofit Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, who said the existing law allows retailers too many loopholes that make it easy for them to continue to distribute plastic bags that barely meet the legal limit.
“We do not believe that the current law is working,” Pacarro said.
The thicker bags “use even more fossil fuels to make and transport,” he said. “More importantly, they remain a huge risk to our fragile environment.”
His organization wants the bill to require plastic bags be 4 mils, a threshold used in other parts of the nation and that has been found to be the price point that makes it uneconomical for retailers to distribute them, Pacarro said.
“It’s at the point where it’s no longer cost-effective for them to go around the definition of a reusable bag,” he said.
Asked whether a blanket ban on checkout plastic bags would work, Pacarro said the law needs to continue to allow reusable woven plastic bags that are much thicker and more similar to cloth bags.
Some jurisdictions, he said, have made it a point to insert language into their laws allowing woven plastic bags but not film-quality ones.
Pacarro said he’s happy that the bill would bar compostable bags at the checkout counter.
“These compostable bags also remain a danger to wildlife and can only be composted in a commercial composting facility,” he said. “Currently, Oahu does not have one.”
Council Chairman Ernie Martin suggested a go-slow approach to changing the existing law.
“Eventually, we will have to ban all plastic bags,” Martin said in a statement. “But to get there, we must be cognizant of the cost to consumers and the businesses impacted by any change to the ordinance.”
The current law took effect only a little more than a year ago, he noted.
“We have local businesses that spent a significant amount of money to bring themselves into compliance with the current law,” he said. “Any amendment we consider has to be negotiated in good faith with all stakeholders.”
The Council first approved a plastic bag ban in April 2012 but set a start date of July 1, 2015, to give retailers the chance to use up their existing stock and purchase new ones. The bill, which Martin co-sponsored, exempted biodegradable bags.
In 2014, a year before the ban was to take effect, then-Councilman Breene Harimoto introduced a bill deleting the exemption. Harimoto said environmentalists pointed out that biodegradable plastic bags, when broken down into smaller pieces, can pose a danger to sea creatures.
But the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, the Hawaii Food Industry Association, plastic bag manufacturers and other business interests called Harimoto’s proposal too draconian because paper and other types of bags cost more money.
Martin amended the bill so the law would still allow compostable bags.
To be allowed, the compostable bags must meet the standards of ASTM International, the nonprofit formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials. Compostable bags must also be specifically labeled.
Biodegradable generally refers to a material that can be broken down by natural processes. Compostable means the end product is completely organic and therefore useful to the ecosystem.
Pacarro praised major retailers that no longer distribute film plastic bags at the counter including Foodland, Whole Foods, Target and Home Depot.
Store chains that use the slightly thicker film plastic bags include Longs Drugs, Walmart, Times Supermarkets, Don Quijote and City Mill. It’s unclear whether the bags distributed by those chains are 3 mils or higher.
A 3-mil bag is the thickness of a heavyweight contractor garbage bag, Pacarro said.
