The Hawaiʻi County Council is moving a measure to strengthen its ban on disposable plastic for food storage.
Bill 83 would ban food providers and permittees at County of Hawaiʻi facilities from using disposable polystyrene or plastic containers and utensils, and require them to use products “certified” compostable or reusable material.
The county already bars the sale of polystyrene foam, but the bill would include plastic material as well.
“The Council finds that the production, consumption, and end-of-life management of disposable foodware and serviceware has significant environmental impacts including greenhouse gas emissions, litter, marine pollution, environmental contamination, harm to wildlife, the depletion of precious natural resources, decrease of biodiversity, and the generation of hard-to-manage waste," the bill states.
Various plastic ban laws are already in place for all the counties in the state.
The bill sparked a familiar debate between those who want to reduce plastic use on the islands and businesses that say alternative materials are inferior and more expensive.
Stephen Ueda, president and CEO of Suisan Company, which supplies food and packaging to more than 1,200 local restaurants, schools and stores, opposed the bill during a hearing this week. He argued the environment does not benefit because the island does not have a composting facility, so disposed materials still go to the landfill.
“ I support the goal of protecting our environment. But Bill 83, as it's written, won't actually achieve that goal — at least not right now,” Ueda said.
The bill's co-introducer, Councilmember Michelle Galimba, said the price and utility of compostable products is less of a problem now.
“I do think that the price difference between regular containers and compostable containers is really quite tiny at this point. And as far as the usability, I can see how there might be some recipes that would push the boundaries of reusable,” she said, responding to a concern that “hot or oily” foods don’t hold well in compostable containers.
But she said that “having those same recipes in plastic is probably pretty bad for your health because that same heat is degrading the plastic and getting nanoparticles of plastic shedding off of those containers.”
This week, a council committee passed the measure 7-1, sending it to the full council.
