2021-08-25 EMC Agenda item 5-b(1) - Final-PSRWG-Report-to-Leg

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I. Introduction The Hawaii Legislature passed Act 254 (Appendix A) and reads as follows: unsustainable and detrimental to the future of Hawaieconomy and people. There has been an exponential rise in single-use foodware items over the past few decades globally, with particularly high increases in plastics derived from fossil fuels. Single-use disposable foodware and packagingincluding plastic bottles, caps, lids, straws, cups, and polystyrene and plastic containersare major contributors to street and beach litter, ocean pollution, marine and other II. Source Reduction vs. Recycling Until recent years, recycling was the buzzword solution that was promoted to address the plastic waste issue. Although beneficial in many ways, recycling is a post-consumer solution to handle plastic waste. In order to reduce the overall generation of plastic waste, more municipalities are stressing the feasibility of source reduction, which aims to mitigate the issue at the beginning of the plastic lifecycle. Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 342G-1 defines source reduction as the design, manufacture, and use of materials to (1) minimize the quantity or toxicity, or both, of the waste produced; and (2) reduce the creation of waste either by redesigning products or by otherwise changing societal patterns of consumption, use or waste generation. By contrast, recycling, as defined in the same section, means the collection, separation, recovery, and sale or reuse of secondary resources that would otherwise be disposed of as municipal solid waste, and is an integral part of a manufacturing process aimed at producing a marketable product made of postconsumer material. III. Impact of Plastics in the Environment Act 254 cites the following information regarding the impact of plastics in the environment: almost every other material. Much of the plastic produced is designed to be thrown away after being used only once. As a result, plastic packaging accounts for about half of the plastic waste in the world. Most of this waste is generated in Asia, while America, Japan, and the European Union are t of the 9,000,000,000 tons of plastic produced has been recycled. Most plastic ends up in landfills, dumps, Additionally, plastic pollution has become increasingly prevalent around the world. More than 500 local municipalities in the US have banned plastic bags, and nine states, including Hawaii, have statewide plastic bag bans. Many are also banning the use of expanded polystyrene foam takeout containers (that includes, but is not limited to, products commonly known as Styrofoam) as well as plastic service ware (i.e. cups, straws, forks, knives, etc.) in order to address other types of single-use plastic pollution. 1