Report Title:

Reusable Resource Center; Recycling; Teachers

Description:

Establishes a reusable resource center on state property through a public-private partnership, to collect and distribute recyclable materials for teachers and others to use as tools for creative learning in classrooms and the community. Appropriates funds to the department of education.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

360

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to reusable resource center.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that a number of teachers in Hawaii's public schools are often faced with the need to obtain various classroom materials on limited budgets, and may end up purchasing these supplies for their students with their own money. One solution to this problem is one that has been adopted in a number of communities around the country, namely, the establishment of "reusable resource" or recycling centers in those communities.

A reusable resource center is an innovation for education, business, and the environment that provides a central location for the collection, display, and distribution of quantities of recycled materials, as well as manufacturers' excess materials, such as clean, safe objects of plastic, wood, fabric, paper, and metal, which can be used by teachers, parents, and others as tools for creative learning in classrooms and in the community. The center serves as a place where teachers and others can come together to obtain materials and exchange ideas.

A reusable resource center is usually the result of a public-private educational partnership in which businesses and industries often donate high quality, unwanted by-products for creative play and learning in schools, day-care centers, Head Start programs, colleges and universities, and theaters and museums.

Students also learn about the benefits of recycling, which conserves energy and natural resources, creates public awareness of conservation needs, gives students hands-on experience with a small business, and provides a solution to the problem of litter and solid waste reduction in the community. Reusing clean donated materials also gives children the opportunity to develop self-esteem and social competence through concrete cooperative learning, and teaches them a respect for the environment.

There are a number of success stories for communities that have established reusable resource centers. For example, the St. Louis, Missouri Teachers' Recycle Center -- consisting of two main recycling centers and three satellite centers -- has transformed more than twenty-five tons of would-be industrial waste into educational materials, in which more than fifty businesses have reduced their waste and earned tax deductions. The center has provided over nine hundred Missouri teachers with recycled educational materials that has reached over 47,500 children. Schools as well as individual teachers can purchase modestly priced memberships that entitle visitors to carry away bags full of educational materials at $1 per pound. Center staff also regularly conduct in-service workshops for teachers, in which adults experience materials in the ways children use them.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to provide for the establishment of a reusable resource center through a public-private partnership for the benefit of the State's teachers, parents, and others in Hawaii's communities. Satellite centers may be established at appropriate locations in each county on state property.

SECTION 2. Chapter 302A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§302A- Reusable resource center. (a) The department shall:

(1) Provide for the establishment and ongoing operation of a reusable resource center on state property, including the planning, programming, and budgeting of operating such a center;

(2) Coordinate and facilitate the activities of the center in the public, private, and volunteer sectors, including the conducting of in-service workshops for teachers and others;

(3) Serve as a clearinghouse for information relating to grants and other moneys available for center programs;

(4) Develop public-private partnerships for the planning, development, staffing, operation, and management of the center, and serve as the state agency in these partnerships;

(5) Explore the feasibility of establishing incentives to the private sector to contribute to the establishment and operation of a center, including the use of tax credits or deductions for donated property; and

(6) As needed, provide for the establishment of satellite centers at appropriate locations in each county on state property.

(b) The objective of the reusable resource center shall be to collect and distribute, at no or nominal cost, clean, safe, and new or recycled materials, in a central location in each county to be located on state property, to be used by teachers, parents, and others as tools for creative learning in classrooms, homes, and in the community, including in public schools, day-care centers, Head Start programs, colleges and universities, and theaters and museums, and to serve as a place where teachers and others in the community can come together to obtain materials and exchange ideas.

(c) The department may receive appropriations, contributions, grants, endowments, or gifts in cash or otherwise from any source, including the State, corporations or other businesses, foundations, government, individuals, and other interested parties, on behalf of the establishment, management, and operation of the reusable resource center; provided that any amounts received for this purpose are not intended to supplant the funding of existing departmental programs.

(d) The reusable resource center shall comply with all appropriate federal, state, and county laws, including fire and building codes.

(e) The reusable resource center shall be staffed by department employees or individuals from the community on a voluntary basis; provided that the department shall have ultimate responsibility over the safety, administration, and all other aspects of the center; and provided further that volunteers shall be immune from civil liability to the extent provided in section 662D-2.

(f) The department, with the assistance of the departments of health and business, economic development, and tourism, shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 as may be necessary to implement this section."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2003-2004, for the establishment of a reusable resource center as provided in this Act.

SECTION 5. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2003.

INTRODUCED BY:

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