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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0064.243 010-2012 Page 1 of 1 COUNTY CLERK pj couNcar Murashige, Laura COUNT" '° ` \MAII From: Lauren Suzanne Zirbel [laurenzirbel @gmail.com] MI DEC 19 AM 8: uO Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 8:45 AM To: counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us Subject: BILL 17 testimony HFIA Attachments: HFIA TESTIMONY BILL 17 Bl.doc Aloha, Please find attached HFIA's testimony for the hearing of Bill 17 on December 21, 2011 at 5 pm in the Hawaii County Council, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo. Mahalo Nui and Happy Holidays! Hawaii Food Industry Association Comm. N g7 • Z Ref. To: r Ref. Date DEC 2 1 1011 12/19/2011 HAWAII FOOD INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION Date: December 21, 2011 Time:5:00 PM Location: Hawaii County Council, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo. Re: Bill 17 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 fee 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 fee 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 fee 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 fee has already generated substantial funds to clean up the Anacostia River. • Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty points out that the fee 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 fee in the first place by using reusable shopping bags. Mahalo Nui Loa for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Lauren Zirbel Hawaii Food Industry Association