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From: Georjean Adams
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Sent: Monday, October 6, 2025 2:02 PM
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To: Council Testimony
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Subject: Bill 83 Draft 1 Testimony
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I oppose the draft Bill 83 amending Chapter 20 of the HCC Relating Plastic and Polystyrene Waste tobeT_
considered at the October 8, 2025, meeting of the Policy Committee on Environment and Natural
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Resource Management.
As with the current ban on polystyrene food serviceware, Bill 83 is misleading and inappropriate in
requiring use of the specified alternatives forwhich
THERE ARE NO VIABLE MUNICIPAL/INDUSTRIAL COMPOST FACILITIES ON HAWAII ISLAND TO
SAFELY MANAGE THESE WASTES.
As a result, these polystyrene and "compostable" wastes will continue to be landfilled at the West
Hawaii Sanitary Landfill, straining its capacity and likely contributing to methane production and release
from the landfill counter to the climate goals of the state and county. (For those worried about
microplastics in landfill leachate, most of it is from fibers and technology for screening out microplastics
is under development.) About the only benefit of this bill is that litter composed of "legal" food
serviceware will contaminate the environment for "only" around a year before biodegrading compared to
Long-lived plastic food serviceware litter. Surely the Council is not saying it's OK to litter these
"degradable" products? Instead, the Council should be encouraging safe reuse and/or recycling of food
serveware and, most importantly, enforcing proper disposal in a sanitary landfill at end of life.
Question - Does the Countyknow whether or not the polystyrene ban has resulted in home composters
contaminating and/or degrading their compost under the false impression that CMA or BPI -certified
products are backyard compostable?
I recommend the Council hold off on banning plastics until there is a recyclables landfill ban ordinance
in place, as proposed by myself and the Environmental Management Commission, that will phase in
landfill restrictions onlywhen DEM is able to show that mandated substituted wastes can actually be
recycled on island.
Georjean Adams
Kamuela, Hawaii
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