STAND. COM. REP. NO 542

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1049

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Energy and Environment and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1049 entitled:

 

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

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to prohibit, beginning on January 1, 2016, an electronic device manufacturer's recycling plan from providing an electronic device owner with only a mail-back option to return a covered electronic device to the electronic manufacturer for recycling.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Hawaii Green Growth, Ulupono Initiative, and Consumer Electronics Association.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from Sims Recycling Solutions.

 

     Your Committees find that electronic waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the State.  As technology advances and more electronic products are produced and consumed by the public, the generation of electronic waste is expected to increase.  Providing only a mail-back option to return a covered electronic device to the electronic manufacturer for recycling is prohibitively expensive and time consuming for consumers and businesses.  Implementation of this measure will increase electronic waste recycling and further the State's goal of waste reduction.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Clarifying that an electronic device manufacturer's recycling plan that provides only a mail-back option for the collection, transportation, and recycling of a manufacturer's covered electronic devices sold in the State shall not be approved by the Department of Health;

 

     (2)  Inserting language to authorize the submission to the Department of Health of the recycling plan of an electronic device manufacturer of exclusively mobile covered electronic devices whose products are voluntarily accepted at no charge by at least fifty retail locations in the State if the recycling plan documents these locations; and

 

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

 

     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. 1049, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1049, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

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

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair

 

____________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair