Categorized | News

Public hearings for plastic bag reduction bill

Karin Stanton | Hawaii 24/7 Editor

Three Hilo councilmen have postponed for at least nine months a plan to reduce the use of plastic bags on the Big Island.

The plastic bag reduction bill was before the County Council at Wednesday’s meeting for its second and final reading, and looked set to pass with the required five votes, until the councilmen threw up a roadblock in the form of a series of public hearings.

The bill, introduced by Kohala Councilman Pete Hoffmann, had gained enough support from his colleagues to pass in mundane fashion. On its first reading, councilors Fred Blas, Brittany Smart, Brenda Ford and Angel Pilago – representing Puna, Ka‘u, South Kona and North Kona – had voted to approve the bill that would severely limit the number of plastic bags handed out at stores and restaurants.

However, at Wednesday’s meeting, Hilo Councilman Dennis “Fresh” Onishi asked to postpone the final vote. When that was shot down, he asked for a public hearing.

Calls for a public hearing need only three votes. Onishi’s request was backed by fellow East Side councilmen J Yoshimoto and Donald Ikeda.

That was enough to trigger a public hearing, but the trio then backed a series of six hearings around the island between June and November.

At the conclusion of the public hearings, the bill will return to the council once again for second and final vote. Mayor Billy Kenoi previously has said he supports such a measure – with a couple of amendments to the enforcement and penalty clauses – and likely will not veto it.

The council has heard testimony on the issue at two previous meetings, which ran overwhelmingly in favor of the reduction plan and follows similar measures recently passed on Maui and Kauai.

Those in favor of the bill cite environmental and health reasons. Those opposed generally voiced specific reasons – they are better, more convenient and cheaper for take-out restaurants; prevent contamination when transporting meat, vegetable and fruit products; and they are used to pooper-scoop pet dogs.

State lawmakers also are considering several bills on the same issue. See: https://hawaii247.com/2011/02/25/state-lawmakers-tackle-plastic-bag-reduction/

2 Responses to “Public hearings for plastic bag reduction bill”

  1. joseph says:

    plastic bags help people carry everything with one hand and we can use it again it’s crazy to due away with it then charge us for paper bags we the people are suffer a lot with all these taxes so please give us a break

    • Eugene Uchima says:

      Right on Joseph!!
      Hope everybody else is listening and oppose this “SPECIAL INTEREST” bill.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks


Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

 

Quantcast