Asked whether Bill 40, which restricts the use of polystyrene foam and disposable plastic food containers and utensils, would affect her business, fishmonger Ashley Watts replied with a firm “no.”

Her business, which supplies fresh fish, will be unaffected because Bill 40 exempts from its restrictions the packaging of raw food such as meat, eggs and seafood, said Watts, owner and managing partner of Local I‘a, a community- supported fishery.

A revised version of the bill, scheduled to be heard Thursday by the Honolulu City Council’s Committee on Public Safety and Welfare, also exempts prepackaged beverages and food, such as poi, tofu, bread, crackers, cookies and chips, and grab-and-go items such as bento boxes and musubi.

But Local I‘a wouldn’t be affected even if seafood packaging wasn’t exempted, because she eschews Styrofoam and single-use plastic for environmental and health reasons, Watts said. She and fellow members of the Zero Waste O‘ahu Coalition plan to speak in support of Bill 40 at a news conference from 11 to 11:45 a.m. this morning at Honolulu Hale.

“When I deliver a whole fish to a restaurant, I carry it in in a pan or tub, and if it’s a filet I package it in a Ziploc bag,” Watts said. “I’ve seen big, Styrofoam fish delivery boxes in the harbors and on the beaches of California.”

Watts also sees the boxes in dumpsters in Hawaii. Because it’s light, breaks down and disperses easily, Styrofoam is a potent source of the microplastics that are eaten by sea life and rise in the food chain, she said.

Other members of the Hawaii food industry have opposed the bill for several reasons, including concerns that it would harm local restaurants and food manufacturers more than mainland-based competitors.

“While it’s good news that local food manufacturers are now excluded, the revised bill is a hodge-podge of exemptions and carve-outs that are confusing and will result in more unintended consequences,” Jason Higa, CEO of Zippy’s and Food Solutions International, said in an email.

Higa added that a requirement to show undue hardship to receive a two-year exemption from the bill is “unfair, subjective and the city will not be able to administer this process efficiently or fairly,” thus unduly harming local companies.

While he agreed that the language of the original bill “wasn’t clear and had some ambiguity,” Stuart Coleman, Hawaii director of the Surf­rider Foundation, which lobbied for Bill 40, said there was “never the intention to include prepackaged, manufactured foods in this bill.”

Some opponents claim nonplastic alternatives would add up to $1 per takeout meal and put many local companies out of business.

But none of the more than 100 restaurants that have been certified Ocean Friendly by Surfrider for using biodegradable, compostable containers, straws and utensils have been damaged by the switch, Coleman said.

“We became an Ocean Friendly restaurant around five years ago, and we’ve only grown in sales, scope and popularity,” said Justin Young, general manager at Koko Head Cafe. On average, Young said, degradable containers cost 5 to 10 cents more.

“We work with local suppliers such as Sustainable Island Products to keep costs low,” Young said, “and any additional cost is far outweighed by the added cost of Styrofoam and plastic clogging our beaches, ocean and landfills.”

Coleman disagreed with opponents’ claims that compostable ware would, like conventional ware, end up being burned at HPOWER.

“The toxic ash from Styrofoam and plastic goes to the landfills and can leach into the groundwater and the ocean,” he said, whereas the plant-based ware “is not going to break apart into microplastics and end up on our beaches or in our guts.”