Kaʻū News Briefs, Tuesday, March 12, 2019

     Cosponsored by east Kaʻū Sen. Russell Ruderman, the bill would prohibit "purchase, use, sale, or distribution of plastic beverage bottles, utensils, stirring sticks, polystyrene foam containers, and straws by state and county agencies after July 1, 2021, and by businesses selling food and beverages after July 1, 2022." It would ban "distribution or sale of plastic bags after July 1, 2023. It would appropriate funds and create a plastic source reduction working group to make recommendations for eliminating single-use plastic packaging.
     Ruderman spoke on the Senate floor last week, pointing out his food stores are "a business that's operated 20 years while being a leader in plastic elimination and it hasn't hurt us at all." He said he has helped with sponsorships of Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund cleanups at Kamilo in Kaʻū, one of the beaches in Hawaiʻi that receives the most plastics washing in from the ocean. He noted that the Fukishima, Japan earthquake and subsequent tidal wave in May, 2017, brought in a "big wave of trash... but every year new trash gets deposited there from around the world. It just happens to catch it." Sen. Lorraine Inouye noted that 60 Minutes covered the story.
     Sen. Mike Gabbard said, "Plastic is a huge problem in our oceans, our wildlife, and our environment as a whole. My colleagues from Hawaiʻi Island may take interest in this: Kamilo Point in rural Kaʻū on Hawaiʻi Island was highlighted in a May 1st, 2017, Huffington Post article as being one of the dirtiest places in the world because of plastics. Ocean Crusaders report that there are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean. Of that mass, 269,000 tons float on the surface, while some four billion plastic micro fibers per square kilometer litter the deep sea.
     "Shoppers worldwide are using approximately 500 billion single-use plastic bags every year, and this translates to about a million bags every minute across the globe or 150 bags a year for every person on earth. And the number is rising. We use 500 million plastic straws every single day in the U.S. A coastal care reports that 90 percent of seabirds have some plastic in their digestive tracts."
     Said Gabbard, "Now, for the good news: Walmart, the world's largest retailer, announced late last month that they will eliminate non recyclable plastic packaging in all it's private label brands by 2020, impacting over 30,000 products. Our counties have been taking the lead on reducing plastics for the last several years. As of July 2015, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, Maui, and Kauaʻi have all banned plastic checkout bags. At UH, a student-initiated ban on polystyrene food polystyrene food containers at all campus food establishments has been in place as policy since 2012. The Hawaiʻi Ocean Friendly Restaurant program launched in 2016 now includes more than 200 eateries that are certified as foam free. Maui County became the first county in Hawaiʻi to pass a ban on polystyrene foam containers in June of 2017. Hawaiʻi County banned polystyrene containers in October of 2017 and this will go into effect July 1, 2019." Ruderman's Island Naturals Deli is one of the participants in the program.
     Gabbard said SB522 SD2 would "move us forward in a very big way in reducing single-use plastic." He said zero waste plastic reduction plans are already established within the European Union, and many countries, such as Ethiopia and Costa Rica, and municipalities across the U.S.