Hawaii's Bottle Bill

[EastCoastTropics]

Re: Hawaii's Beverage Container Tax

I hope so too pzarquon. And I also hope it spurs support from those politicians who feel that same way as well.

Is there a Recyclying org in Hawaii? If so, what's their stance on all of this? What are they doing to educate the public about this?

[pzarquon]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

Officials fine-tune bottle law
Sean Hao, Honolulu Advertiser, Thursday, March 24, 2005

Officials are tweaking Hawai'i's new bottle law to encourage consumers to claim their 5-cent deposits... The state Department of Health said consumers now will receive 83 cents per pound of redeemable plastic containers, up from 60 cents, and 12 cents per pound for eligible glass containers, up from 10 cents... [and] lawmakers, looking for ways to boost participation, are close to reversing the rule that says you can't return crushed aluminum cans and plastic bottles.

We've finally made taking our bottles to the Mililani recycling center a weekly tradition, and my daughter loves the regular excursion (as she gets to keep the cash - it's part of her allowance!). But yes, this just has to be made easier.

Recycling at the point-of-sale (reverse vending machines at supermarkets) is really what I think would turn the tide. Since the state is seriously underpaying out of the bottle bill fund ($600,000 out of $7 million collected), they should grab a couple million and just buy reverse vending machines for retailers and subsidize them to ultimately cost just pennies on the dollar.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

I had some spare time last week so I took a carload of cans and bottles to my nearest neighborhood redemption center. Let's just say that there are a few kinks still to be worked out with the process.

At center #1, the big Matson container sitting in the parking lot was locked and unattended, although a half dozen tired-looking men were sitting around on curbs waiting for somebody to open up and redeem their cans. I didn't feel like waiting, so I went to the next place on the list.

Center #2 was open and running, and people were there. But when the bored young woman running the place told me that not only did I have to separate my aluminum from my plastic, but that I had to separate the different colors of my glass bottles, I gave up there too.

Center #3 was an industrial-scale metals recycling place in Kalihi, and the sight of workers in steel-toed shoes and safety goggles warmed my heart. Now these guys would know what to do! Sure enough, they were polite to this out-of-place townie, and even though I still had to separate my plastics from my metals, they didn't make me sort my glass by color. The guy I talked to even brought over some empty bins for me to sort into. What service! I even was able to unload my non-HI-5 glass jars and plastic milk jugs, although they wouldn't give me money for them. I walked away with about $15 in my pocket, all in all not too bad.

Now that I know, I'll remember to keep separate bags of aluminum cans and plastic bottles. And next time I'm going straight to #3 -- the service at the first two places really sucked.

[pzarquon]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

Bottle returns surge after 2 slow months
Sean Hao, Honolulu Advertiser, April 6, 2005

The state paid back $1.59 million in March to consumers who returned bottles for the 5-cent deposit per container. In each of the previous two months the state paid out only about $300,000. The state collects about $2.5 million per month in deposits... Even with the improvement in March redemptions, the state has paid back only about 10 percent of the deposits it has collected so far. The state has also raised $4.4 million through Feb. 28 via the 1-cent fee for administrative costs associated with running the program.

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

What's laughable is Mufi is now worried that the new island-wide curbside recycling program that's about to be launched on Oahu will get swamped by the thousands of cans and bottles that people have been saving up to redeem and either haven't had the time or gotten disgusted with the current rules and recycle center hours.

I think if people don't want their money back from their deposits, then Mufi should hire a bunch of people to pull those recyclable cans and bottles out and sell them back on behalf of the City. Maybe then part of the expense of pothole repairs could be covered by a recycling fund rather than out of the City's general fund.

Miulang

[pzarquon]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

I think if people don't want their money back from their deposits, then Mufi should hire a bunch of people to pull those recyclable cans and bottles out and sell them back on behalf of the City. Maybe then part of the expense of pothole repairs could be covered by a recycling fund rather than out of the City's general fund.

Wouldn't that be something? It'd burn through the ridiculous surplus the state has accumulated to date, and serve the common good. I can just hear the phone call from the recycling center, though. "Uh, boss? There's a line of container trucks here, reporting seven hundred and thirty six tons of bottles... At 83 cents a pound, that's, what, $1,221,760? I think I'm going to need a bit more cash."

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

Talk about a rip off, yesterday I went to the Food Court at the Prince Kuhio Mall in Hilo and bought a 20oz bottle of Coke at one of the food vendors for $1.97 They said the price hike is due to the bottle bill. I should have returned the empty bottle and asked for my deposit back the way the bottle deposits worked back a few decades ago, let the vendors deal with the bottle bill.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

That's like how when the gas stations post their prices at the pump they make sure to tell you how much of their price is due to federal, state, and local taxes. Hey, I don't care about that, I just want to fill my tank.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

yeah but you don't want to drain your wallet at the same time! $2 for a Coke amazing!

[pzarquon]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

Recycling site closing unless state pays bill

Island Recycling Inc. said it is owed $250,000 by the state for containers redeemed between January and mid-March and will stop accepting bottles and cans at its redemption center in Kalihi tomorrow if it isn't reimbursed before then. Atlas Recycling on the Big Island closed six satellite redemption centers last week after the state fell behind in reimbursing the nickel-per-container refunds.

[Miulang]

Foodland to become first retail recycle redemption center

Good news for all you Oahu residents who have been storing up all those cans and bottles, thinking "someday" you'd be able to get your money back. As of the beginning of May, 3 of the 4 Foodland supermarkets on Oahu will start accepting recycled cans and bottles for instore credit (meaning, you won't get any cash back, but can buy food at Foodland with your rebates).

I think once Foodland starts, other grocery stores will also want to jump on the bandwagon for fear of losing patrons.

Miulang

[Keith H.]

Re: Foodland to become first retail recycle redemption center

Good news for all you Oahu residents who have been storing up all those cans and bottles, thinking "someday" you'd be able to get your money back. As of the beginning of May, 3 of the 4 Foodland supermarkets on Oahu will start accepting recycled cans and bottles for instore credit (meaning, you won't get any cash back, but can buy food at Foodland with your rebates).

I think once Foodland starts, other grocery stores will also want to jump on the bandwagon for fear of losing patrons.

Miulang

Well, hey, it's a start. Time to dust off that Maika'i card. (There are way more than 4 Foodlands on Oahu, BTW.)

[pzarquon]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

It is a start. Good for them. I wonder if the 'mobile' redemption center is the one the recycling company was showing off on TV: not just a trailer, but a rack of "reverse vending machines" that takes bottles one at a time and scans codes? If so, this might be a good test for Foodland to determine if they want to invest in permanent "reverse vending machine" installs at their stores. I'll make a point to use the service if it'll encourage more moves like this.

[EastCoastTropics]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

Awesome!!!

[DaveNSoKona]

Re: Hawaii's Bottle Bill

First of all let me say that I have seen the bumper sticker that says "We don't care how you did it on the mainland".

That said, before I moved here from Oregon we would pull up to selected grocery stores and feed our cans and bottles into a machine out front or on the side of the building and the machine would spit out a slip of paper that was redeemed in the store for merchandise or money. I don't know who owned those machines or how they were paid for. Every grocery store had some sort of redemption center.

The last time I was at the transfer station at Wai`ohinu (on a weekday) there was a pile of cans and bottles as high as a house. They only man the redemption center there on weekends. So I guess people in Kau don't rally need the refund.

When they were proposing the Hawaii bottle bill, with a baffling proposal to collect more than the return value, I emailed my representative and pointed out that with a 10 cent bottle deposit, any equipment or infrastructure needed could be paid for (or at least a down payment) with the "float". The float being, all those bottles sitting in peoples pantries waiting to be returned. Well I guess they didn't like that idea.

Anyway, I think Hawaii merchants that sell pop here are big babies. If it cost you more to hire more employees to deal with it, then charge more and pass it on to you customers. If you don't want to deal with the bottles just stop selling things that come in cans and bottles. Simple.