Earlier this summer, the Honolulu City Council put in place a flat-out ban on checkout- counter plastic bags, effective Jan. 1, 2020. The environmental protection measure is laudable, although it lags behind effective bans already up and running on neighbor islands.
Now, with Bill 71, a proposed ban on ubiquitous foam takeout food containers, Honolulu City and County has an opportunity to keep pace. In June, Maui County became the first county in Hawaii to pass a ban on petroleum-based polystyrene foam containers, effective Dec. 31, 2018. A similar proposal is before the Hawaii County Council.
The proposal for Oahu, slated to get its first airing before the City Council on Wednesday, would ban food vendors from using polystyrene containers when serving prepared food. Instead, vendors would be required to use disposable food service containers made from compostable material. The bill also bans using polystyrene to package meat, eggs, bakery products and other foods.
A clause allows for the city’s enforcer, the Department of Environmental Services, to grant exemptions for businesses that demonstrate that the ban would cause them undue hardship.
Current law allows restaurants to use foam containers that do not contain chlorofluorocarbons. A foam ban is a needed step to better protect Honolulu’s environmental health. There’s no disputing that the lightweight foam, which can easily drift away from waste collection systems and accumulate on land and in water, can leach toxins and do harm to birds and marine life. And none of it is recyclable in the islands.
On neighbor islands, it ends up in landfill space that is, of course, tightly limited in an islands-based economy. On Oahu, Honolulu’s waste collection delivers all polystyrene materials to HPOWER, where it’s burned to serve as a fuel source. The waste-to-energy plant produces up to 10 percent of Oahu’s electricity. However, when incinerated, polystyrene releases toxic ash and smoke.
Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who introduced Bill 71, opposed a failed 2014 proposal for a ban. At that time, she said, members of the business community convinced her that a switch would be too expensive. She credits her toddler daughter with changing her mind. Contemplating the child’s future, Pine said she “started to look at things that we need to start changing, even if they’re hard.”
There’s no doubt that ditching the tidy containers used for serving up the hot and cold comforts of local takeout is no easy task. Indeed, polystyrene food service clamshells are typically cheaper for businesses to keep in inventory than environmentally friendly containers that can be recycled here.
But the switch is already well underway in green-minded circles. At the University of Hawaii at Manoa, for example, a student-initiated ban on use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam at all campus food establishments has been in place for four years. Also the Hawaii Ocean Friendly Restaurant program, launched last year, now includes more than 130 foam-free eateries. Participants use only recyclable or compostable containers.
Efforts to impose a statewide foam container ban have stalled in the Legislature. So, as with the plastic bags issue, our counties are to be commended for taking action based on environmental foresight. Five years ago, a bill was signed into law with the aim of outlawing single-use plastic grocery bags on Oahu — and Hawaii became the first state nationwide in which each county had in place such a checkout counter ban.
Bill 59, approved by the Honolulu City Council in July, closes a loophole — effective Jan. 1, 2020 — that has allowed businesses to offer “reusable” plastic bags that are slightly thicker than the banned filmy sacks.
The City Council should support the foam container ban, too — as its long-term benefits outweigh modest cost bumps and perceived inconvenience.
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CLARIFICATION: The first reading of Bill 71 has been taken off the City Council agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.
