Bill Text: HI HB1688 | 2024 | Regular Session | Amended

Hawaii House Bill 1688

Bill Title: Relating To The Environment.

Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 18-1)

Status: (Engrossed) 2024-03-22 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM. [HB1688 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2024-HB1688-Amended.html

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1688
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024		H.D. 2
STATE OF HAWAII		S.D. 1

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that, under current practices, solid waste may soon exceed landfill capacity in all the State's counties. The State must, where feasible, reduce waste production and conserve resources by reusing and refilling packaging materials, diverting organic materials, and recycling. Additional resources, facilities, and services will be needed to achieve resource conservation and waste reduction targets and reduce the counties' costs for waste management. Although most packaging waste in Hawaii is handled in a linear manner, where it is used and disposed of after a single use, the State needs a more circular system where resources are reused and not wasted.

The legislature further finds that several other states have adopted or are considering legislation to require producers of packaging to take on some of the responsibility and bear some of the costs of reducing and managing packaging materials and paper products.

State and county governments, packaging producers, and the community need to work together with stakeholders to reduce the amount of waste produced in Hawaii and ensure that services are available to reclaim and recycle products when they reach the end of their useful life.

The purpose of this Act is to require and appropriate funds for the department of health to conduct a statewide needs assessment and establish an advisory council with relevant stakeholders to determine what would be needed to transition to a more circular system with less waste generation, more reuse, and the necessary infrastructure to sort and locally process recyclable materials through an extended producer responsibility program for packaging materials and paper products.

SECTION 2. (a) The department of health shall conduct a statewide needs assessment to determine what will be needed to transition to a more circular system with less waste generation, more reuse, and improved collection and local processing of materials through an extended producer responsibility program for packaging materials and paper products. The assessment shall be conducted by the department of health in consultation with the following stakeholders:

(1) Each county department responsible for waste management;

(2) Global and national producer responsibility organizations, including producer responsibility organizations actively working on reusable packaging systems;

(3) Producers of packaging materials and paper products;

(4) Refuse and recycling collection and processing service providers;

(5) Compost facility operators;

(6) Retailers, including restaurants, wholesalers, and distributors;

(7) Organizations and community groups involved with waste management and waste reduction;

(8) Organizations or community groups representing the native Hawaiian community;

(9) Environmental justice organizations; and

(10) Environmental and human health scientists;

provided that additional stakeholders may be included as the department deems necessary and relevant.

(b) The department of health shall convene an advisory council to review the draft needs assessment and propose recommendations throughout the assessment process. The department of health shall also hold a public hearing to obtain comments on a draft needs assessment plan. The advisory council shall include:

(1) One representative from each county department responsible for waste management;

(2) One representative from a national producer or producer trade association;

(3) One representative from a Hawaii-based producer or producer association;

(3) Two representatives who are experts or operators of reuse, refill, or circular economy systems;

(4) One representative from a Hawaii-based refuse service provider;

(5) One representative from a Hawaii-based recycling collection and processing service provider;

(6) One representative from a Hawaii-based retailer, including restaurants, wholesalers, or distributors;

(7) Two representatives from Hawaii-based organizations and community groups involved with waste management;

(8) One representative from the native Hawaiian community or environmental justice community; and

(9) One representative who is an environmental or human health scientist.

(c) The needs assessment shall detail the resources required in each county to reduce as much as feasible the packaging materials waste and paper products that the county sends to a landfill or power plant that burns municipal solid waste. Additionally, the needs assessment shall consider the following:

(1) Waste and recycling characterizations, including baseline studies of what is in the waste stream, what is being recycled, what is being composted, and how these vary across local jurisdictions;

(2) Existing collection infrastructure, including:

(A) What materials are being collected and the processes and procedures for collection;

(B) Who currently has access to refuse, recycling, and composting collection services;

(D) Improvements in services needed;

(3) Processing and materials recovery facility infrastructure, including:

(A) How collected materials are currently being processed and marketed;

(B) Whether the sorting technology is up to date;

(D) Opportunities and infrastructure needed for more local processing of materials; and

(E) Costs to implement infrastructure improvements;

(4) Markets, including the state of markets for recovered materials and finished compost;

(5) Education, including the effectiveness of the existing outreach in educating residents;

(6) Levels of contamination in collected packaging materials and organics for composting;

(7) The impact of the composition of packaging materials on the reuse, recyclability, and compostability of packaging materials;

(8) An evaluation of how extended producer responsibility program laws are designed and working in other states and countries;

(9) An evaluation of an appropriate definition of "producer" for an extended producer responsibility program in the State;

(10) Equity and environmental justice, including:

(A) Consideration for how the existing system is operating and how extended producer responsibility could increase equity; and

(B) An assessment of equity issues in education efforts;

(11) Economic impact, including estimates in job development from increased reuse, recycling, and composting;

(12) Environmental benefits from reduction and reuse and local versus off-island materials processing;

(13) How extended producer responsibility can promote upstream improvement such as source reduction, packaging redesign and optimization, reduction of packaging materials that are harmful to human health or the environment, and reuse and refill practices, including:

(A) Identifying opportunities for source reduction, reuse, and refill in packaging systems; and

(B) Cost and infrastructure needs to implement these systems; and

(14) Suggested diversion targets and timeline using baseline data from the needs assessment to determine the resources, infrastructure, educational program, and other initiatives needed to reach conservative, moderate, and aggressive waste reduction goal scenarios.

(d) The department of health shall complete and submit the needs assessment, including any proposed legislation, to the legislature by December 31, 2027.

(e) For the purposes of this section:

"Packaging materials" includes materials used for the containment, protection, or serving of products, including but not limited to paper, paperboard, cardboard, plastics, glass, or metal, or a mixture of any of these materials. "Packaging materials" excludes beverage containers included under the Hawaii deposit beverage container program.

"Paper products" includes printed materials such as office paper, magazines, newspaper, and junk mail. "Paper products" does not include literary, text, and reference bound books.

"Refill" means employing packaging materials that consumers reuse.

"Reuse" means the return of or to return packaging materials to the economic stream for use in the same kind of application intended for the original packaging without changing the original composition of the package, the identity of the product, or the components thereof.

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $1,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2024-2025 for the department of health to conduct a statewide needs assessment, pursuant to section 2 of this Act, to inform the future establishment of an extended producer responsibility program.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of health for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. In accordance with section 9 of article VII of the Hawaii State Constitution and sections 37‑91 and 37‑93, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the legislature has determined that the appropriations contained in H.B. No. , will cause the state general fund expenditure ceiling for fiscal year 2024‑2025 to be exceeded by $ or per cent. In addition, the appropriation contained in this Act will cause the general fund expenditure ceiling for fiscal year 2024‑2025 to be further exceeded by $ or per cent. The combined total amount of general fund appropriations contained in only these two Acts will cause the state general fund expenditure ceiling for fiscal year 2024‑2025 to be exceeded by $ or per cent. The reasons for exceeding the general fund expenditure ceiling are that:

(1) The appropriation made in this Act is necessary to serve the public interest; and

(2) The appropriation made in this Act meets the needs addressed by this Act.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 3000.

Report Title:

DOH; Packaging Waste; Needs Assessment; Advisory Council; Extended Producer Responsibility Program; Expenditure Ceiling; Appropriation

Description:

Requires the Department of Health to conduct a statewide needs assessment and establish an advisory council to determine what would be needed to transition to a more circular system with less waste generation, more reuse, and an extended producer responsibility program for packaging materials and paper products. Declares that the general fund expenditure ceiling is exceeded. Appropriates funds. Effective 7/1/3000. (SD1)

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.