STAND. COM. REP. NO.  134

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

 

RE:   H.B. No. 639

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 639 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SOLID WASTE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

    

     The purpose of this measure is to make changes to the deposit beverage container law to facilitate redemption of containers.

 

     More specifically, the measure proposes to:

 

(1)  Require deposit beverage distributors to report the number of containers sold and make fee payments on the number of deposit beverage containers sold;

 

(2)  Allow consumers to request that the refund value be computed by container count if the consumer is redeeming no more than fifty containers of each container material type per visit to the redemption center;

 

(3)  Allow redemption centers to refuse to pay the refund value on containers that appear to have been previously processed and baled; and

 

(4)  Requires the Department of Health to pay the handling fee only on containers that have actually been physically received by the redemption center.

 

     The Department of Health submitted testimony in opposition to this measure.

 

The Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, and Reynolds Recycling submitted testimony in support of this measure.

 

     Your Committee has amended the bill by:

 

(1)  Requiring dealers with greater than seventy-five thousand square feet of interior space to operate a redemption center;

 

(2)  Authorizing the Director of Health, after consulting with the Auditor, to suspend the deposit beverage container fee if the funds in the deposit beverage container deposit special fund are sufficient to meet the statutory requirements of the fund; and

 

(3)  Deleting the word "net" from section 342G-105(b) and section 342G-111(f) to conform with other amendments made to section 342G-105(b).

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 639, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 639, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

HERMINA MORITA, Chair