STAND. COM. REP. NO. 579

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 871

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Energy and Environment and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 871 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FOOD WASTE RECYCLING,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to promote re-use and recycling to reduce solid and liquid wastes for environmental conservation.

 

     The measure accomplishes this purpose by requiring any agency that serves meals in a state facility to establish a food waste recycling program that collects or separates at least fifty per cent of the food waste it generates.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Eco-feed, Inc.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Health.

 

     Your Committees find that food waste recycling is a safe and environmentally sustainable alternative for disposing of food products that are wasted or past their sell-by dates.  Recycling food waste will reduce the amount of refuse that is congesting landfills, is cost-effective, and environmentally friendly.  Your Committees further find that public facilities, such as schools, are the largest producers of food waste.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting language that created the food waste recycling program and inserting language to establish a three‑year food waste recycling pilot project in the public school system;

 

     (2)  Allowing the Department of Education to determine which school districts are to participate in the pilot project;

 

     (3)  Requiring the Department of Health to cooperate with the Department of Education in developing and implementing the components of the pilot project;

 

     (4)  Requiring the Department of Education, with the assistance of the Department of Health, to submit interim reports of the pilot project to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Sessions of 2008 and 2009, and a final report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2010;

 

     (5)  Changing the funding source of the appropriation from the Environmental Response Revolving Fund to the Environmental Management Special Fund and requiring that the Department of Health transfer the moneys to the Department of Education for expenditure; and

 

     (6)  Changing the effective date to encourage further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environment and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 871, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 871, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy and Environment and Health,

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

 

____________________________

RON MENOR, Chair