HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0064.182 2010-2012Dear Dominic Yagong, Chairperson and Members of the Hawai'i County Council, Page 1 of 2
Murashige, Laura
From: Mel Ancheta [ma @kyd- inc.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 7:49 AM
PI
ikouc ( . i NCB
Ca
To: counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us C7n
Subject: HFIA TESTIMONY BILL 17 BI -Kona 11 07 0 C)
November 7, 2011 t --<
Mr. Dominic Yagong, Chairperson = =r-
And Members of the Hawaii County Coucil b -•=,
Via email: co unciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us '=
o0
Dear Dominic Yagong, Chairperson and Members of the Hawai'i County Council,
The Hawaii Food Industry Association is a non - profit trade association, which represents retailers,
wholesalers, manufacturers, and brokers, as well as other associate members that work in the food industry.
This legislation harms consumers and increases their most basic cost of living, food.
We urge you to not pass this bill. As an alternative, we suggest a bill that would actually decrease the amount
of single use bags used, as opposed to this bill, which simply shifts consumers to paper and increases costs.
We genuinely hope that you consider the following information before making a decision about this bill.
Why we should NOT ban plastic bags:
• Production of paper bags generates 70% more air pollutants and 50 times more water pollutants than
plastic bags.
• Paper bags are six to eight times more voluminous than plastic bags. Shipping costs are six times greater.
This means that the carbon footprint to bring paper bags to the island is greater than that to import
plastic bags. Moreover, plastic bags are manufactured on Oahu and paper bags are not.
• Plastic bags consume less than 4% of the water needed to make paper bags. It takes 5,527 cubic meters of
water to produce 100 million paper bags.
• The cost of foodstuffs is rising rapidly. The World Bank states that expansion of food based alternative
energy and products have played a part in the doubling of the price of corn. These products also release
methane into the environment, a powerful greenhouse gas, when they compost.
• Plastic bags are far less expensive than paper in both cost per case, and cost of shipping. A typical plastic bag
costs about a penny to produce, a paper one about 6 -10 cents and a compostable bag about 8 -12 cents.
• The ULS San Francisco survey found that all food chains affected by the ordinance had switched to paper
bags only. There was NO increase in reusable bag use.
• In order to avoid having consumers pay more for food as a result of forcing retailers to switch from plastic to
paper bags, which is actually less environmentally friendly, we would suggest focusing of reduction of all
single use bags by implementing a fee on all single use bags. This will bring revenue to the County.
Why we should implement a fee on ALL single use bags:
• A tax on shopping bags in the Republic of Ireland has cut their use by more than 90% and raised
millions of euros in revenue, the government says.
• The Republic of Ireland's tax of 15 cents per bag was introduced as an attempt to curb litter, and the
improvement was immediate and "plain to see ", said Environment Minister Martin Cullen.
• Washington D.C. imposed a 5 cent per bag tax on retailers and restaurants. Within the first month of the
program, the average monthly number of bags used in D.C. decreased over 80% from 22.5 million bags to
just 3 million. The tax has already generated substantial funds to clean up the Anacostia River. /'
Corm No. & T/ . (.6'2°'
Ref. To: Press j flow.4:/
11/9/2011 Ref. Date tiny 1 5 . ?flit
Dear Dominic Yagong, Chairperson and Members of the Hawai'i County Council, Page 2 of 2
• Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty points out that the tax on plastic bags is not to charge consumers out of
using bags — or to burden them financially anymore than they may be with grocery store prices — but to
encourage shoppers to avoid a tax in the first place by using reusable shopping bags.
Mahalo Nui Loa for your time and consideration.
Mel Ancheta
KYD, Inc.
2949 Koapaka Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96819
***************************************************************** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * **
NOTICE: This message is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential
and /or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, any review, retransmission, dissemination, copying
or other use of this message is strictly prohibited. If you received this message in error, please contact the sender
immediately by reply email, delete this message from all computers, and destroy any printed copies.
***************************************************************** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * **
WARNING: Computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this email and any attachments
for the presence of viruses. The sender accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this
email. Email transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error -free as information could be intercepted,
corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late, incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for
any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of email transmission.
***************************************************************** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * **
11/9/2011