STAND. COM. REP. NO. 325

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 301

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 301 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RECYCLING,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to mandate the Department of Health to adopt and implement the recommendations made by the Office of the Auditor regarding combining the advance disposal fee program and deposit beverage container glass streams, and require the Department of Health to report on its implementation of the recommendations to the Legislature prior to the 2018 Regular Session.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Auditor, City and County of Honolulu's Department of Environmental Services, and four individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health, Hawaii Island School Garden Network, Wine Institute, and one individual.

 

     Your Committees find that currently, glass recycling in the State is subsidized by two programs; non-deposit glass recycling is subsidized by the advanced disposal fee program, while deposit beverage container glass recycling is subsidized by the deposit beverage container program.  Each program requires that its glass be processed and marketed separately.

 

     Your Committees further find that the Legislature passed S.C.R. No. 74, S.D. 1, Regular Session of 2014, to determine whether a more efficient option exists pertaining to the processing operations associated with glass recycling.  The resolution requested the Office of the Auditor to conduct an audit of the Department of Health's advance disposal fee program.  In response, the Office of the Auditor recommended that the Department of Health consider combining the advance disposal fee and deposit beverage container glass processing streams to increase efficiency and decrease costs while increasing the supply of glass available for down-cycling.  The Office of the Auditor also recommended that the Department of Health update and finalize the 2008 Department of Health policy glass recycling draft.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Making the report to the Legislature due prior to the 2019 Regular Session;

 

     (2)  Inserting a blank appropriation for the Department of Health to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of combining the processing streams of the advance disposal fee glass container and deposit beverage container glass;

 

     (3)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2017; and

 

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

Your Committees note that although the appropriation is blank, the Department of Health's testimony requests an appropriation of $100,000 to conduct the cost-benefit analyses.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 301, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 301, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Agriculture and Environment,

 

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair

 

________________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair