If the state Legislature approves pending “bottle-bill” legislation that establishes a deposit system for beverage containers, expect to find reverse-vending machines alongside machines selling beverages outside stores like Kmart and Wal-Mart. Say what? A reverse-vending machine takes empty cans from
If the state Legislature approves pending “bottle-bill” legislation that establishes a deposit system for beverage containers, expect to find reverse-vending machines alongside machines selling beverages outside stores like Kmart and Wal-Mart.
Say what?
A reverse-vending machine takes empty cans from the public and spits out vouchers that can be used like checks inside stores where the machines will be located if the bottle bill becomes law.
Kmart already utilizes such a system in its headquarters state of Michigan, and state Rep. Mina Morita (D, north Kaua’i, east Maui) arranged for a demonstration of a reverse-vending machine at the Capitol this session.
Michigan has a deposit system where consumers pay 10 cents deposit per beverage container at the time of purchase. Reverse-vending machines like the ones outside Michigan Kmart stores read the bar codes on the containers to make sure they’re deposit-entitled, and issue receipts good for purchases in the Kmart stores for the total amount of the redemption value of the containers.
Kmart will install similar machines at its Kukui Marketplace location along Nawiliwili Road if the bottle bill becomes law, explained Julie Fracker, a Kmart spokeswoman.
Hawai’i retailers opposed to the legislation cite the need for additional manpower and warehouse space to handle and store empty, redeemed beverage containers, but Fracker said the enactment of the Michigan legislation did not necessarily add to Kmart’s workforce because of the automated system the company opted to install.
And despite organized opposition from the state’s beverage industry, food industry association and others, Morita still feels the law would be good for the environment and the state’s rapidly filling landfills.
Morita, chair of the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee, is clinging to the bottle bill if for no other reason than most of her other energy and environmental protection initiatives have been killed this session by the state Senate.
The bottle bill is important, she said, because of the “critical issues” all the counties face regarding landfills (rapidly filling existing ones and the difficulty finding publicly acceptable places to locate new ones).
The bill also addresses the changing nature of the beverage industry. Who would have thought only a few years ago that people would flock to stores to buy water in plastic bottles? she asked.
As recently as 1995, some 95 percent of all beverage containers in Hawai’i were aluminum cans. Today, that number is under 50 percent, and the use of plastics for beverage containers is increasing, she noted.
The state has to contend with 800 million empty beverage containers a year, yet the containers account for only around 3 percent of the state’s wastestream, as nearly all empty aluminum cans are recycled.
Morita remains convinced that if the beverage industry wanted to be a leader in recycling initiatives, it would be. The problem is that the industry cares about the container only until it is sold to a consumer. After that, it is the consumer’s problem, which means it oftentimes gets tossed into the trash can, ultimately destined for a landfill.
“The beverage industry won’t take responsibility,” she said. It’s hard to understand why, she said, especially since the industry pays more for the container than its contents.
And while bottle-bill opponents have called the proposal a new tax that will hurt most those who cannot afford to absorb it, the poor and elderly, Morita argues that it is a fee assessed on distributors, and retailers have the option of passing on that added cost to their customers.
Distributors already pay 1.5 cents per glass beverage container, with proceeds going to recyclers and redemption centers, and that hasn’t necessarily equated to higher costs for buying beverages in bottles at stores, she added.
Finally, under the proposed legislation, stores big and small will have the option of becoming redemption centers, where people can bring their empty containers and collect their deposits.
Business Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
