• Bottle bill turning into consumer, business nightmare Bottle bill turning into consumer, business nightmare A Linda call in for reform of the bottle recycling system now place across the state came this week from the administration of Governor Linda
• Bottle bill turning into consumer, business nightmare
Bottle bill turning into consumer, business nightmare
A Linda call in for reform of the bottle recycling system now place across the state came this week from the administration of Governor Linda Lingle.
L. Smith, who serves as Governor Lingle’s Senior Policy Advisor, and has twelve years of experience in the plastic and recycling business in Hawai‘i, sent the press a letter outlining problems she sees with the “bottle bill” as it rolls out on Kaua‘i and across Hawai‘i.
Smith said those running recycling centers are adding ad hoc rules for those wishing to recycle cans and bottles. She said on the financing side of the program, the state is collecting the funds instead of the stores that sell the containers, causing cash flow complications for grocery businesses that run on about a twopercent profit margin.
Another flaw, Smith says, is that the cumbersome program is attacking only a small fraction of the solid waste disposal problem facing Hawai‘i.
Smith writes: “…we just need the bipartisan political will to admit an error was made and fix it.”
We agree that Hawai‘i has a solid waste problem and that a longterm solution is needed. However, as the “bottle bill” hits the pocketbook of consumers and the bottom line of grocery stores competing in one of the worst states in the union to do business, it’s apparent the way the recycling system is set up is flawed.
Having the bottle recycling funds go directly to state coffers appears to be a backdoor way to fund environmental programs, as well as cutting back on bottles and cans alongside our roads.
Most bottle and can recycling is still being done by those who have traditionally done it. Council candidate Bob Cariffe is one example of someone who scours our highways for recyclable cans. The average household won’t take the time to collect the cans and bottles, clean them, adjust their schedule to that of recycling centers that close for lunch for a few dollars a month in return.
However, when added up, if a family of four goes through 20 containers a week of soda, water and other containers that are tagged with the extra nickel charges and don’t want to allocate their time to cashing in the containers, the program will cost them over $50 a year.
That amounts to another state tax, and one that will drain funds from other areas of a family’s budget at a time of record tax collections anyway.
It is time to step back, perhaps shut down the system as it is now run, and take a careful second look at what is going on.
