Legislature to consider statewide plastic bag ban

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a news release on Jan. 27 praising Kauai and Maui counties for countywide bans on plastic grocery bags, saying the counties’ actions will reduce waste and protect the environment. The Maui and Kauai bans began in January. Honolulu City Council has discussed but not passed a ban on Oahu, but the Hawaii Legislature is now considering extending such a ban statewide.

“The leadership shown by the Counties of Maui and Kauai in banning these bags will help keep their environments pristine,” said Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “This will not only decrease the amount of plastic in the counties, but it will reduce the number of bags that end up in the great Pacific garbage patch – an enormous area of floating plastic waste.”

Senate Bill 1059 would prohibit the use of “single-use plastic checkout bags” starting July 1, 2012, for businesses with annual gross sales of more than $300,000. That would include every supermarket and the retailers such as Walmart and Target. Previous attempts during the past couple of years to enact a ban have failed.

Another bill, Senate Bill 1363, would require businesses to collect a 25-cent fee for each plastic bag used. Businesses would keep a quarter of that quarter as income and 75 percent would go to the state Department of Health to administer and enforce the fee.