HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0107.033 2016-2018 PI 1OLtAJm .
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Murashige, Laura
From: sara phelan <seagroveyoga@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2017 4:21 PM COUNTY CLERK
To: Council Testimony COUNTY OF HAWAI'I
RECEI`lED
Subject: FOAM Time '21 'f By
Date (3R//7 •
Aloha,
My name is Sara Phelan, and I am a resident of O'ahu. I am writing in full support of Bill #13.
m dee I concerned about the im acts that st rofoam is having on our environment, ;and particularly our
la pY p y:
beautiful Hawaiian islands I am asking:that you please take serious consideration y in removing styrofoam,from
the islands,'`as well as educati g our local community so•n th•e• impact that these materials have on our
precious ecosystems With education,,and personal;;responsibility, or KULEANA, our communities can learn to
reuse their own reusable containers, or choose to support businesses who only use bio-degradable, earth
friendly to go containers.
Attached are more topics to consider...
Cleanup Costs & Economic Benefits
•Plastic is costing cities, counties, states, & countries millions of dollars and our global economy billions.
Costs are passed to the taxpayers by burdening our storm water management systems with the need
for expensive best management practices and the costs of cleanups.
•Hawaii State Department of Transportation has produced a trash plan that shows styrofoam and plastic
bags as the top two contributors to the waste stream.
•The Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) created a plastic cleanup valuation study for 90+
counties in California:
oCA taxpayers are paying $428 million per year to clean up plastic through storm drain
management, street sweeping, and cleanups.
oSan Diego County (with population of 1.3 equivalent to Hawaii) spends $14 million alone on
plastic cleanup
•United Nations Environmental Program Global Estimates are in the billions for the global cost to
cleanup plastics, $14 billion for marine plastic alone.
oThis cost is closer to $78 billion annually if all costs are considered, including the cost lost in
fossil fuel production and loss of resources.
•Burden on the public
oAccording to cleanup hours recorded across Hawaii's beach cleaning organizations and
volunteer hour base rates\we spent $750,000 - $1 million on beach cleanups in 2016 alone
Environmental Impact
•Further, for each ton of polystyrene not produced, 2.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions are
avoided. This directly supports Hawaii's greenhouse gas reduction goals as stated in the Aloha +
Challenge and as mandated by the US EPA.
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•The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Waste Reduction Model (WARM) report shows that
burning polystyrene emits more carbon dioxide equivalent than other plastics. For each ton of
polystyrene incinerated, 1.64 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent are emitted.
• If burned at HPower, one compostable clamshell burns 1.76 times greater energy compared to one
EPS Foam clamshell of the same size. And burning compostable products come without the toxic
ash or smoke that EPS foam creates in the burning process.
•Fiber clamshells are also less than half the volume of EPS, so a restaurant could fit about twice as
many clamshells on the same amount of shelf space or have more space for other things.
•The material for fiber containers can be grown and then made here in Hawaii, so more jobs and
sustainable ones, not jobs that are exposing workers directly to large amounts of toxic chemicals.
EPS can also be made here, but raw, toxic source chemicals need to be shipped to Hawaii.
•EPS is designed to be used it once, and according to the US EPA less than 1% of foam is recycled
nationally. 0% of EPS Foam is recycled locally.
•EPS Foam is composed of over 90% air, so even when properly disposed of, foam products easily fly
out of trash bins and dumpsters, and they enter into the natural environment, eventually polluting our
ocean and negatively impacting ocean health and threatening marine wildlife.
•EPS Foam also breaks apart more easily and quicker than other plastics, making it more difficult to
clean up than other plastics and easier for animals to mistake as food and ingest
•According to the EPA Waste Reduction Model Report, 7% of plastic waste generation in US is
polystyrene. Of our total plastic recovery, polystyrene makes up 0.7% of recycled plastic
Human Health
•Styrene is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen and a confirmed animal carcinogen as
reported by the National Institute of Health in their Report on Carcinogens (2011); this conclusion is
also endorsed by the National Academy of Sciences (2014)
•When combusted, styrene produces benzaldehyde (US EPA classifies this as a hazardous substance),
acetophenone (Group D carcinogen by US EPA, causes chromosomal damage on hamsters, but
hasn't been tested in humans), styrene oxide (main metabolite of styrene, which is known
carcinogenic, and considered possibly carcinogenic).
A huge Mahalo,
The Phelan Ohana
(We haven't used styrofoam for at least 10 years, and we are a family of four, whom our 9 and 11 year old
children know not to use styrofoam, and have never had any issues without it)
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