By Andrew Gomes

A plan to restructure Hawaii’s highly criticized beverage container deposit and redemption program is being considered at the state Legislature.

A committee in the House of Representatives advanced a bill Wednesday that proposes replacing the state Department of Health as the recycling program’s administrator with a nonprofit representing beverage container producers that would pay a 5-cent deposit per container instead of beverage buyers.

The effectiveness of the Hawaii Deposit Beverage Container program, which charges consumers 6 cents for each beverage container purchased and offers a 5-cent refund on containers returned for recycling, began degrading not too long after it began in 2005.

Falling redemption rates have led to the Health Department amassing $74 million from deposit revenue on unredeemed containers, prompting efforts in recent years to reform the program known as HI-5.

The latest effort, House Bill 1928, was introduced by Rep. Nicole Lowen (D, Kailua-Kona-Honokohau-Puuanahulu) with backing from 19 colleagues in the 51-member House. It has drawn support or encouragement from recycling proponents mixed with opposition from beverage producers and retailers.

During an initial hearing on the measure held Feb. 3 by the House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection, The Story of Stuff Project, a national nonprofit focused on what people throw away, said Hawaii’s beverage container recycling rate is the lowest among 10 states that have deposit and redemption programs.

The organization, which supports HB 1928 but encouraged changes to the bill, said Hawaii is in need of updating its program to help raise its roughly 50% redemption rate to levels in other states that range from 70% to 90%.

Encouragement for the bill also came from the Solid Waste Task Force of Hawaii Environmental Change Agents, the Hawai‘i Reef &Ocean Coalition and the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii.

Chamber President and CEO Sherry Menor said in written testimony that financial responsibility for the current program is fragmented across distributors, redemption centers, retailers and the state, with no single entity accountable for managing costs or efficiency.

“This bill alleviates the administrative and compliance burdens on deposit beverage producers by shifting administration of recycling compliance to a producer responsibility organization,” Menor said. “With this model, producers benefit from predictable membership costs and reduced exposure to audit and fraud, while redemption centers are fairly compensated.”

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