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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN PCENRM 2025/09/16 (2024-2026)Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural Resource Management 41h Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii September 16, 2025 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural ORDER: Resource Management was called to order at 2:35 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Vice Chair Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. James E. Hustace, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Member (came in later, via videoconference from Hilo) Absent & Excused: Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak on Bill 83 (Comm. 482), and came forward when called by the Chair: Hannah Rose: Kara Stepanik: Janice Palma-Glennie: Kristine Kubat: (representing Recycle Hawaii) In support. (see Comm. 482.085) In support. (see Comm. 482.095) In support. In support. (see Comm. 482.082) Elizabeth Ellger: In support. PCENRM-4 BILLS FOR ORDINANCES: Bill 83: Relinquish Chair: Motion to Approve: Autumn Buford: (representing Perpetual) Alexis Chapman: (representing Hawaii Food Industry Association) Jennifer Navarra: (representing Zero Waste Hawaii Island) John Ellger: (representing Sustainable Island Products) September 16, 2025 In support. Comment. Comment. (see Comm. 482.101) In support. The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Bills for Ordinances. AMENDS CHAPTER 20 OF THE HAWAI`I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO PLASTIC AND POLYSTYRENE Seeks to reduce disposable plastic or polystyrene foodware and serviceware in alignment with the County of Hawai`i's Zero Waste Plan and the State of Hawai`i's Aloha+ Challenge Solid Waste Reduction Goals. Reference: Comm.482 Imr. by: Council Members Galimba and Villegas At this time, the Chair relinquished the chair to Vice Chair Kagiwada. Ms. Villegas moved to recommend passage of Bill 83 on first reading. Seconded by Ms. Galimba. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Council Member Villegas, please, go ahead. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. First off, I want to humbly apologize to everyone who has been waiting for years for this legislation to come forward. When I started working on this a year into my service here, we got hit with a global pandemic. And for anyone who has worked in these kinds of roles, timing can be everything and that was not the right time to bring this forward. Timing has presented itself. Things have become that much clearer I think for the needs of our community to move away from petroleum -based plastics, and it's definitely already become more the norm. I also want to thank everybody that's provided testimony, supported me, helped edit, qualify, validate, compare this piece of legislation to what's been done in Oahu and Maui and to weed out the loopholes that have been identified in that legislation and had to go back and be amended. I also want to thank the project Page 2 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 that's been happening in the last —I forget when it was that I went over for that first reuseable project, kind of presentation. And I want to be very clear; this legislation is not intended to compete or inhabit the movement and transition to reusable. However, this piece of legislation, the goal is prohibiting the use of something, not necessarily trying to get over the complicated or bobbed down by the term reuseable and where those loopholes where accidentally introduced on prior islands. So I have gone through many of the suggestions on how to be more specific on the term reuse, and after much deliberation I do intend on making some amendments and I am open to other amendments here. But in the wisdom of the Legislative Research Branch, it's become very clear that it may be wiser to actually just remove reusable from this because it doesn't appear anywhere else and the focus is on what's prohibited. I am in full support of another piece of legislation coming forward which does include, defines that perimeter score, prioritize infrastructure, all those things. But I suppose I'm asking for what I consider allies in the direction and intention this legislation is to recognize what this is for and that we don't accidentally hurt one another's efforts in both of these streams of reduce and reuse. And so I like in this kind of to when I was going to the general plan meetings and ironically, it's people coming forward that I would've thought would think differently that are saying there is no climate change. So I don't want us to then accidentally become hurting one another because something isn't in complete alignment with a certain agenda. I just want to be very clear what the agenda is for this legislation, and I think it's other than the term reusable, which seems to be causing a lot of confusion and challenges. That's something I'll be taking a look at, but I'm completely open to more conversation. Also in my ten years sitting here what I have learned is to get something as big as this I actually expected more opposition to be coming from big plastics or big oil. But this is just committee, so they might be here later. So I would ask for the support of those; I'm in full support of a reusable program coming to Kona and in full support of more amendments and what not. But I'm just asking for that consideration and respect for the intention of this specific piece of legislation and I would love nothing more than to include single -use beverage containers. I wanted nothing more than to include single -use toiletries in our hotel industry. I mean, there's a number of things. But we've got to get something, and this is that something right now to get us to that next step and then we can continue to move forward. And with that, at this time, I'll yield to my counterpart on this bill. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. Council Member Galimba. Page 3 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. Perfect timing there. So this is a very exciting piece of legislation to bring forward. I mean, I'll take the heat on some of the things that Council Member Villegas wanted to put in but hasn't because I think I might've made some little comments along the way about, hmmm, I don't know about that; it might be going a little too far. So I mean, for me, the folks that I talk to a lot are not necessarily sustainability activists, you know, they're regular folks. And for better or for worse, I think we want to get this really good legislation that I think most people can agree is a really good way for us to go in the books. We want to lead, but we don't want to lead too far ahead. I think we need to bring everyone along with us and I think that's a really important thing to remember in this time where we have a lot of divisions going on, that if we can try and keep ourselves as much as possible together as we move forward, that makes for the best outcomes in the end. So this is a little bit of a nudge rather than a great leap forward, and I think that's a good thing. Yes. So there's a few things that I've heard from folks in the community. And there's one thing that I asked questions about this myself, and one of the language in this is food providers and County facility users, and on sort of a naive reading user might sound like a County facility user might sound like just anyone that's at a County facility; park, or something like that. But the definition of a County facility user is actually someone that has pulled a permit to use that facility for a special event for example. So this is not the plastic police coming down at your picnic at the beach with your family, and you will not be getting fined for using plastics with your family. That's I think an important thing to bring up. Also, around the question of prepared foods versus prepackaged food, there's been some feedback that this legislation might prevent local manufacturers from being able to package their food in a way that is reasonable at this time. In other words, there aren't really at this time a lot of options other than plastic bags to put your manufactured items into. And that is not really an issue because the definition in our County Code currently of prepared foods does not include prepackaged food, so they are exempt from that definition of prepared foods. And on top of that, already existing in the Code is the possibility to apply for an undue hardship exemption. So this bill will not go into effect for a year and on top of that if your particular business cannot find packaging that works within that year, you could come in and ask for an undue hardship exemption. That would last for 180 days, giving you yet more time to find solutions, which solutions are increasing all the time. Fellow Council Members are a little sick of me talking about my wonderful trip to Scandinavia, but one of the wonderful things about it was seeing their amazing sustainable packaging. I was being a sustainable packaging geek while I was there; taking pictures of my food containers. So it's out there and there are good solutions. Alright, that was the first time I've ever made it to the beep. Page 4 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. For the record, Council Member Onishi has rejoined us. Council Member Inaba, please go ahead. MR. INABA: Sure. Thank you. I was looking forward to this bill. My own family, my sister, is the leader of getting us to be more sustainable. We take our own dishes and soap and water when we camp, so we try to minimize our waste that we produce. So I'm happy to see this. Just a few questions and perhaps no answers required, but just wanting to make sure I state some of my questions and concerns that can be incorporated in the amendments that you folks bring forward. So first of all, I think it's already been kind of addressed and that's to define what the County facility users are, in the County facility definition, there's an addition of the term franchisees. So that might be something we can also define because I haven't heard that used in the context of our County facilities. And then, when we look at the prohibition itself, Section 20-05-01, we're talking about a food provider, a county facility user not being able to sell, distribute, use or otherwise provide to the public. So in the event that someone pulls a permit for the use of, for example, Makaeo Pavillion, for let's say a baby luau; does this apply? Because I'm not sure if the term public applies to anyone in attendance at what is a private event and I guess just wanting to make sure it's clear there because we're saying that if you pull a permit, then you're a county user. But then, I guess making sure we have a clear line of who is the public and where —maybe something as simple as an infographic, and I know there's education that's already been built into this bill. But it might be helpful for us even as we work through this bill and our Council proceedings to understand the limits of where and who it applies to. That's all I have for now. Thank you. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. I just want to mahalo the makers for bringing this bill forward and really moving us in that direction. So thank you. And I was wondering if you had invited Department of Environmental Management (DEM) to join us today to be part of this conversation. Alex, if you could come up, that'd be awesome. Thank you. And if you could introduce yourself? (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Recycling Specialist Alex White came forward to address the members of the Committee) MR. WHITE: Alex White, Recycling Specialist with DEM. Page 5 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 MR. HUSTACE: Thank you so much. I appreciate your time this afternoon. I just had a question about our past plans that the County had in 2016 for industrial composting. If we could kind of look at that; if you could just share some feedback on where we left that, where does that leave us now kind of going forward as we consider some of these heavy uses of composting materials that need that sort of facility and now, we're going to be —and this is not now, but it's already happening. These things are already going into our waste stream to our solid waste landfill. So if you could kind of just share some insight into that, that would be amazing. MR. WHITE: Yeah. So big picture. So currently compostable packaging is going to the landfill. We don't have any commercial composting facilities on island that can currently handle that. The plan that you're referring to we consider it tabled. So that happened in 2016 and there's a number of reasons to justify that. There was significant public opposition at the time. In addition there were some questions about the volume of food waste that could be directed to the composting facility. The logistics involved, the collection, and the cost of doing so, tricky. So in light of the impediments at the time, it was tabled. And currently we don't have plans to pick that up. MR. HUSTACE: At the time, I think that was about I think $10.5 million for that facility? MR. WHITE: That's my understanding. So 2016, yeah, $10.5 million. I'm not sure what that cost would be today. MR. HUSTACE: Yeah. That's kind of what I'm curious about. I mean, it's just looking at the big picture on how we continue sort of other diversion streams from our solid waste landfill. So appreciate your insight on this. And is this a conversation that's occurring at the commission level at all? MR. WHITE: Yeah. The commission has touched on it briefly. Obviously, wastewater has been the dominating force for all of us including the Solid Waste Division. So yeah, to be determined on what the recommendations are. Keep in mind, we are doing an integrated solid waste management plan update within a few years and that will be one of the mechanisms with which we map out future priorities for DEM including composting infrastructure. MR. HUSTACE: That's fantastic. And at the time, I mean, there's no other way to really divert what's going in the stream at the moment then. If we're kind of seeing the same flux of compostable materials going to landfill, what do you see as some of them, you know, shorter than having a large-scale industrial facility, are there other sort of steps that we can take diverting it to identifying spaces in the landfill that, you know, we have compostable material that should eventually be relocated come a natural facility. Page 6 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 MR. WHITE: Yeah. I understand what you're saying. Similar proposals have been made for plastics, for example. I can't speak to that; it's not my expertise and I'm not sure if anyone's actually been talking about that. But keep in mind that if you have compostables that are wet and contaminated of food waste and liquids and things like that, they would begin to break down quite quickly in the landfill into the greenhouse gases, so there might be a short-term impact there. But we understand that it potentially could be easier to create and help us in infrastructure if the County's largely switched over to compostables too. So definitely pros and cons to this as we see it. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you. I appreciate your time this afternoon. Thank you, Chair. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Council Member Hustace. Going over to Hilo, do you have comments or questions over there? Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. Just really quickly to the makers. You know, thank you for putting forth this effort and really, really interesting proposal. Glad to see it in front of us. Is the intention here primarily when we talk about providers of prepared food; are we primarily looking at like restaurants and food trucks and things like that or is this meant to include like KTA, Sack-n-Save, you know, poke bowls, cut up meats, cut up fruit, or as mentioned in some of the testimony, the value added goods that are maybe sold retail style for local products? Can you just clarify that for me? ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: I'll go really quick and then I'll let Council Member Galimba join in. I suppose I'm a little confused by your question because the difference. Let's go to locally made chips, right, because we had the gentlemen from the chip company speaking at HSAC (Hawai`i State Association of Counties). Is that one product you're talking about versus when you go to KTA and you get the sushi that's made there; is that the difference you're talking about? MS. KIMBALL: Well yeah, I'm actually asking does it include those two things or is it just like you go to, you know, the sandwich shop downtown and you get sandwich and a drink and you get all of your utensils and what not as compostable or reusable there or does is also include like the prepared sushi at the convenient stores or grocery stores and the packaging of products that are made here and sold retail? MS. VILLEGAS: No. It does now include all of that because there is an exemption in here for that. Once again, if you have been to Oahu and Maui, unfortunately I still see Styrofoam there; but many of the same ways that you see Page 7 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 things happening there is still allowable based on this. There are exemptions for that. And you'll see when it comes to utensils, people have to ask for them instead of them being given to everybody every time or there's a self -serve option. So this was templated after Bill 40, but then with the delay in getting it presented, which may have been a blessing because as was mentioned earlier, loopholes were already found. So I'm very thankful to the help of the Ellger Family and a number of other people working on this issue. They were able to work with Oahu to help them close those loopholes and thus bring forward a piece of legislation for us that would avoid those hiccups. Once again, not is all expensive for all the plastic in our waste stream as I would love to have it, but this elephant has got to be one bite at a time. And when it comes to composting I just want to really quickly, Council Member Hustace, there was a lawsuit that kind of hiccupped the composting facility and in that timeframe some of the focus, as was said, had to go to wastewater, which is a big one; but also the technologies around composting and smaller composting units as opposed to trucking our compost to one side of the island to another is also another one of the options that's come online and feasibility and access to them. So that's really come a long way as we —I'm hoping this would pivot us. I know at the Kona Brewers Festival we did all zero waste if we could. But we used compostables and they got shredded and put in the school garden at Innovations Public Charter School and then the next year we would have soil from that effort. So they are compostable, it just takes a little more sweat and elbow grease. So, I'll yield. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Council Member, thank you. Council Member Kimball, the floor is still yours at this time. I think Council Member Galimba may also have something to add if you want or are you wanting to go on with some of your questions or comments and then have the maker --okay. MS. KIMBALL: I apologize. I'm still unclear. So if I'm Sack-n-Save and I have packaged sushi available, I am not allowed to use a plastic tray for that unless I ask for an exemption or is that type of thing exempted? I'm just trying to determine if this — MS. VILLEGAS: Exempted. MS. KIMBALL: And where is it exempted? I don't see that language. MS. GALIMBA: The sushi wouldn't be exempted because that's prepared food. MS. VILLEGAS: Food packaging for raw meat, poultry, seafood; seafood, I would consider sushi seafood. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. But it says, "that hasn't been further processed." Page 8 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. MS. KIMBALL: So I would think that that would include meat that had been cut by the butcher and packaged. But I'm not having any problems about anything, I'm just trying to understand what exactly is being targeted and what your intention was to target. I mean, if your intention was to exclude some of those pre -prepared meal items, I guess you would call them, from the chain grocery stores, I just want to understand if that was your intention or not. MS. GALIMBA: I believe our intention was to move us away from single -use foodware for prepared foods, which there is a definition of prepared foods already in Chapter 20, which is, "food or beverages which are served packaged, cooked, chopped, sliced, mixed, brewed, frozen, squeezed, or otherwise prepared for consumption by a resale consumer on the premises of food provider including, but not limited to beverages ready to eat and takeout food. Prepared food does not include raw eggs, butchered meats, fish, or poultry unless provided for consumption without further preparation or heating. For example, sashimi and poke shall be considered to be prepared food. This also does not include pre- packaged or pre -sealed items such as breads, cookies, milk, juices, snacks, candy, nuts, fruits, vegetables, or other items typically sold in a grocery store or a food manufacturer to retail location." That being said, looking at this with a critical eye, I realize that we need to put that word prepared in front of food in a couple of key places in this legislation to make that a little more clear. We do have the definition of foodware, which refers to items used to hold, store, or contain food or drinks such as cups, lids, covers, plates, bowls, trays, or other containers, but does not include wrappers, bags, bottles or cartons. So we are trying to make that distinction, but it is a difficult distinction to make between those foods that are meant to be immediately consumed and those that are — there's some of them that are sort of on the line, they're packaged and yet they're not kind of just the meal that you're going to have right at that one moment, which is what I think we're looking to as our intention to prohibit the use of plastics for those kinds of food items. MS. KIMBALL: I think we're all kind of arriving at the same thing, which is maybe there is a lack of specificity. And I raise this particular issue because I recall and I can't remember if it was Maui or City and County of Honolulu, but this idea of things that were prepared in the shop, in the grocery store and then packaged there for sale, would they or would they not be covered by this, the legislation? And so, you know, which ever way you go is fine. I just want to make sure that we're clear with the ultimate form of this legislation about whether or not that sort of thing would be included. I think the idea like the potato chips in the packaging, those are already excluded by the language you have in here to some extent, but I think there's probably some things we might want to look at Page 9 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 there as well. But since you're considering some amendments, I think that's another area to look at just for clarification about what your intentions are. Thank you. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Council Member Kimball. Anybody else over there in Hilo? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes. Council Member Onishi and I have questions. Thank you, Chair. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay. Go ahead, Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. You know, just kind of springboarding off of what Council Member Kimball shared. I think it would be incredibly useful to have some kind of infographic that identifies what is meant by this bill versus what is exempt so that there is like a clear visual for when folks know this law applies to them or not. I go to Kagimoto's a few times a week to get my kids musubis because we wake up late and I don't have time to make home lunch, and the musubis wrapped in plastic and I'm curious if this legislation, if it were to pass, would it apply to the musubis and what's the alternative? You know, these are just questions that we're going to have to start thinking about when we think about implementation of the bill. I'm really glad that Council Member Hustace brought up the composting facility, and I know that someone from DEM is in the audience. And again, I want to continue to challenge us as a County. If we're not going to do one massive composting facility --can you still hear me in Kona? It doesn't matter if you can see me, but can you just hear me? ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: We can hear you, but we cannot see you. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: That's fine. So long as we're capturing the audio for the record. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay. Go ahead. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: You know, my wondering is can we find a way to pilot, you know, micro -composting facilities at our transfer station? I don't know what's entailed, but if we're going to be asking food providers to switch over to compostable products, I just want to make sure that we have the correct processing infrastructure in place on our island so that these materials can properly break down. And then the other thing that I just wanted to note, I know that one of the testifiers was from Sustainable Island Products, but if we're again asking folks to make the shift to sourcing these sorts of products making sure that these products are available; that folks have access to them. Just some things for folks to consider. Again, want to advocate for that visual graphic so that anybody Page 10 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 that asks members of the Council questions about the bill, we can share with them what the authors of the legislation had in mind. Thank you. I yield. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Council Member Onishi. MR. ONISHI: Thank you. My concern is about having like our youth athletic activities like tournaments and say like leagues or whatever. Are they going to be affected by this? Could any of the authors of this bill answer that? ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Council Member, do you have more than —if you maybe want to say all the things you have and then we can go back to the —is that — MR. ONISHI: Basically that's it. And then the next thing I was going to do is just call up the guy from DEM. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay. Alex, you can come up. Did you want to question Alex? MR. ONISHI: I just want to get the question first about what we have athletic activities or tournaments. They have a concession; so will this affect those, I guess, the club that's doing the fundraiser? ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay. To the makers, could you maybe quickly answer that so that we can move on? That would be great. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah. What I'm excited to say is most of our youth are ahead of us. Most of our youth are already focused on using compostables or have their utensils; they have their water bottles, reusable hydroflasks and are bringing them with — MR. ONISHI: No, no, no. This is the concession I'm talking about. Not individually. So when they're making money to sell like hot dogs or chili plates, or whatever, is this going to affect them? Like how we're doing just today about having like people are not being able to like solicit on the roadways; like you see athletic clubs go on the side of the road with one fishing net to ask for donations. So my question is about concessions. MS. VILLEGAS: I think it will depend on where the concession is. MR. ONISHI: If it's at a County facility. MS. VILLEGAS: At a County facility? Page 11 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 MR. ONISHI: Yes. MS. VILLEGAS: In talking to LRB (Legislative Research Branch) about this, some of the rules need to be determined moving forward. But I would love to, and I hear your concern here, Council Member Onishi, because it has happened, you know, because they're trying to raise money, so they don't want to spend too much money on things like utensils and whatnot. But I'm also grateful to say that most of the compostables are very compatible in price now. There is not a huge price difference. And our young people, they're more akamai than we are and it's actually an opportunity for us to exemplify and walk the talk. And that's what I see our young people doing. I host and have put on lots of fundraisers for youth, and it's just become the norm. It's kind of a no brainer no thinker now and it's just much easier than you think and a lot less resistance. MR. ONISHI: Nope. I understand because back when I was on the Council, we did pass this bill before us, right, and we did change things about using polystyrene and like the clamshells and so forth. MS. VILLEGAS: Styrofoam? MR. ONISHI: Yes. But one of my concerns back then was also about concessions for athletic clubs and so forth. So I just wondered about that. And my next question is towards DEM. So we talked about the contract, but in that contract are they still supposed to be looking at doing composting or is it just green waste? MR. WHITE: Yes. You're referring to the contract with Hawaiian Earth Recycling. Right now, that was all paused. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Alex, can you state your name again? MR. WHITE: Yeah. Alex White, Recycling Specialist, DEM. Yeah, my understanding is that it was all paused in the aftermath of, you know, the decisions to table the, we refer to it as Phase 2 of the organics program. Yeah, that was all paused. MR. ONISHI: So their contract was altered then? MR. WHITE: I can't comment on the specifics of that. It was before my time. But my understanding is that those were all officially paused. MR. ONISHI: Okay. Can you find out and email me? MR. WHITE: Yeah. I can absolutely follow up. Page 12 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 MR. ONISHI: Okay. Thank you very much. I yield. MR. WHITE: You're welcome. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Thank you so much. Alright. Do the makers have anything else to add? I do want to say a few things as well. Okay. MS. KIMBALL: Chair? ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Sorry. We can't see you over there, so you have to speak up. Did you have one follow up thing, Council Member Kimball? MS. KIMBALL: Yeah. I did. It occurred to me one other thing I wonder if the authors would be interested in entertaining a friendly amendment to make the requirement apply or the prohibition actually apply to folks that received contingency funds for events from the County? MS. VILLEGAS: May I, Chair? ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Yes, go ahead. MS. VILLEGAS: If you're willing to draft the amendment and it can be okay. Once again, the intentionality could be very, very vast for what we'd like to cover. I have my co -introducer here who's more tempered with me and allowed for —I'm just really grateful that we're currently in a time; one, we're not getting the pushback that, you know, the polystyrene legislation got, and the plastic bag ban got. I think we're at a time of elevated understanding of the risks associated with and not just health -wise but, also financially, also to our infrastructure when it comes to our waste stream and our solid waste facilities. So I like to call it wobby sobby; it's perfectly imperfect but moving forward and continuing to improve. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Ahight. Thank you so much. Just a couple comments here. It might be easier to understand in the context of the current code but I'm assuming that when it says director, it means director of DEM. Is that correct? And then also it says — MS. VILLEGAS: I'm sorry. Can you? I don't know where that is. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Yes. In Section 20-05-03, under exemption. Several times it refers to the director as in documentation as specified by the director. The director may exempt food that provider, and then there's also on Number 4, says, "applicants may appeal the director's decision to the commission." So I'm just wanted some, that these are Director of the Department of Environmental Management. Is that correct? Page 13 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 MS. GALIMBA: Yeah. It's in Chapter 20, so that's all defined there. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay. Okay. And then the Environmental Management Commission could override the director's decision; is that what I'm reading? I mean, I understand this is current code, so it's not anything you're changing. I'm just trying to understand that because I'm not sure that I understand that that makes sense. Anyway, but this would all now be referring to anything having to do with the new changes as well. So I guess calling your attention to do you still want that to be the case? My big issue obviously, and I think you probably know, have to do with the reusable part. I heard what you had to say, Council Member Villegas, and understand that you want this to be clean; you want it to be simple; you want to get it through. But I think if we don't address the reusable piece while at the same time the County is the key player in the program around reusable foodware that yes, the pilot is in Hilo, but from everybody we've talked to, the intention is to go island wide and not ten years from now, but fairly quickly after we get the Hilo project going. So I just would hate for us to miss that opportunity. I think these things go very well together and I think we can learn a lot from what Oahu and Maui did. I think that's the plus of not being first, is that we can learn from their experiences and try to, you know, avoid some of those pitfalls. So I'm happy to draft an amendment, which I hope will be taken as a friendly amendment around the reusable foodware piece to try to get a little more succinct so that we don't have those worries, but at the same time keep that piece in there, which I think is so important. I did want to just note that we will be having two weeks from now a presentation from the people doing the Hilo reusable foodware project; an update and a presentation two weeks from now. So I think that will hopefully also maybe answer some questions and show how these things can fit together. I know there was somebody, one of the testifiers that had concerns if we use reusable plasticware, but at this time we are intending to use reusable stainless steel for that project. So I don't think we have that issue. Yeah. So I do want to strongly recommend that we keep reusable foodware as part of this overall. I think it's timely. I know one of our testifiers also said it might be too early, but it's happening. So we're investing; we're already almost $4 million in this one project. So it's happening and I hope we can work together to make that. So, happy to either back off if you're going to do something around that or maybe I can come with a suggestion, and you guys can decide if that fits into the bill. Okay. Alright, great. Council Member Hustace, did you have a follow up? MR. HUSTACE: Yes. Thank you, Chair. This is really just to Council Member Kimball's points on —she had very specific requests on contingency funds and if I Page 14 PCENRM-4 September 16, 2025 could just make a recommendation that it may be just a little bit broader in a sense of County funds or County grants that go out for events. So it's not necessarily just the small pool of money that we all decide and choose for communities, but just kind of a bigger. Thank you. I see your thumbs up. Awesome. Thank you, Chair. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Alright. And the last thing I just wanted to add is I noticed that we don't have the administrator for OSCER (Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience) here. I think it might be really important to like think about how all that ties in. Do you have a—? MS. VILLEGAS: I do have an —thank you. She's actually texting me right now and she apologized she couldn't be here. Her mom is passing, so she had to be off island. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay. MS. VILLEGAS: So she will be here next time. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay. Okay. MS. VILLEGAS: But it is something that we have been working with her on. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Excellent. Alright. Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. And to Council Member Kimball's point and Council Member Hustace's follow-up, I think you know, some of the Council Members, myself included, have provided contingency funds actually specifically for doing reduced waste at some of our larger sporting and other events in our County facilities, in our parks and stuff. So I think we know that we can move that way and hopefully, you know, I like the thought that you've given it a little bit of time but before that one year comes up, we can be putting some of these things into place. We're not going to wait for that year to be up before we test it and refine it and get it to a good place so that people are comfortable as we move to that actual banning. So did you have something else you wanted to add? Council Member Galimba, go ahead. MS. GALIMBA: Sony, you distracted me. I had something and now I was listening to you, and I've forgotten kind of what it is. But generally I guess I just want to thank everybody for their feedback. I think there were some really good points that will help to make this bill better and look forward to your friendly amendments. That's what it was. I really think the idea of infographics is a good one. And so as this gels and we have a good idea of how to make that infographic clear, I think that would be a really, really good idea. Page 15 PCENRM-4 Motion to Postpone: (Approved) ADJOURN- MENT: Approved: September 16, 2025 And then going back to Council Member Inaba's question about the public. I actually did have that conversation with LRB. And so public, it means it has to be available for everybody. So if you're just providing food to your family, you are not providing it to the public. So that's another kind of guardrail around this, or the opposite of guardrail. I don't know. But anyway, making it a very specific application; it's not that we're gonna just go out there and be after everyone just having a quiet picnic. That's it. Thanks. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay. Do we have a motion to postpone? I'm going to the makers; is that where we're at right now? Ms. Galimba moved to postpone Bill 83 to October 7, 2025. Seconded by Mr. Inaba and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, Villegas, and Acting Chair Kagiwada — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Kaneali`i-Meinfelder —1. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. KAGIWADA: And with that, we've finished our committee's work. Thank you all. There being no further business, Acting Chair Kagiwada adjourned the meeting at 3:49 p.m. Chair Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural Resource Management IMIA G4 (Date) Page 16