A Honolulu City Council committee Thursday evening approved the amended version of a proposed bill that ultimately aims to prohibit food establishments from using disposable plastics on Oahu, following several hours of testimony.

Bill 40, introduced by Councilman Joey Manahan, would impose a sweeping ban of disposable plastics, including expanded polystyrene foam items, plastic carryout bags, clamshells and plastic service ware, which includes plastic utensils.

The amended bill offers a number of exemptions, including prepackaged foods such as juice boxes, bags used to package nuts and grains, newspaper bags and bags used to contain fish at pet stores. It also pushes the date the bans would go into effect another year to Jan. 1, 2021.

Manahan said he was pleased to have cleared another hurdle, particularly since the discussion over plastics has been going on for more than a decade. His amendments were an effort to address the concerns of businesses, but the time to act is now, he said.

“If you look at the ocean, every single piece of plastic ever created is still out there,” said Manahan. “It’s in our oceans, ending up in the fish, the sea creatures and animals. It’s contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, carbon emissions. … We really need to be doing our part, especially if we’re going to be leaders in the climate crisis.”

With the passage out of the Public Safety and Welcome Committee, the bill now goes to the full Council for consideration in November.

More than 60 individuals testified for and against the bill Thursday afternoon, with most of the opposition coming from industry representatives as well as businesses. The majority of individuals testifying supported the bill, including youth as young as 9 years old and students from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Representatives of the Hawaii Restaurant Association and the Hawaii Food Industry Association held an advance press conference in front of Honolulu Hale, expressing their concerns about the sweeping ban before testifying later that day.

They were concerned about interpretations of exactly what would be banned, and said the bill would not only push up the costs of doing business in Hawaii, but potentially put some out of business.

Under the original bill, they said, every part of the supply chain — from local manufacturers to wholesalers and retailers — would be affected by the plastics ban.

“It would put a lot of people out of business,” said Gary Yoshioka, president of Diamond Bakery, a longtime, family-owned business. “What people are not understanding is that we are concerned about the environment, but the technology in the world does not exist to make truly compostable products that degrade in the environment.”

The cost of switching to compostable products also would increase costs, which would be passed along to the consumer, they said.

Tom Jones, chairman of the Hawaii Restaurant Association, estimated the increase at up to $1 more per takeout meal, which would add up for a family of four.

“The reality of the situation is it all ends up at HPOWER anyways,” said Jones. “So this bill would force us to pay more for the products which are not readily available. We’d have to pass along the cost to the consumer. They take it home, put it in the trash, it goes to HPOWER. It all gets burned up, same as the plastic. So it doesn’t do much to change the environment.”

A newly formed task force to find solutions to the plastics issue is scheduled to meet for the first time next month. Instead of a county-by-county approach, they said there should be a statewide, collective effort to find solutions.

The bill’s intention was always to target plastics used in food service and takeout items, according to Manahan, and not manufacturers or small businesses with packaged goods. Exemptions are also available for businesses that can find no viable alternatives.

“I think it’s time Oahu has a ban,” he said.