Consumers and businesses on O‘ahu are now one step closer to facing a plastic bag ban. The Public Works and Sustainability Committee advanced Bill 10 unanimously on Wednesday, April 4. If the bill passes, those who sell goods will have to pay a fee for having plastic bags, and much later will have to prohibit the bags altogether.
Banning plastic bags will benefit and preserve the beauty of O‘ahu. Too often, one can walk along the shorelines and find a plastic bag floating atop the water.
An April 4 issue of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said there are three phases of the bill. In its first phase, businesses would have to pay a fee of 3 cents for every non-biodegradable plastic bag given to their customers, although currently representatives for Safeway, Times and Foodland have suggested that the fee be directed to customers who want to go plastic.
In the second phase, the fee would later increase to 5 cents. The money accumulated by the charge will go towards supporting recycling efforts.
In its final phase, the ban on all non-biodegradable plastic bags will take effect.
Committee Chairman Stanley Chang told the Star-Advertiser that the next step of the bill is to reach the Council for a public hearing.
While Chang said there have been questions about the ban – specifically how different types of bags affect the environment – a transition to a plastic bagless shopping experience will help more than hurt.
If the bill is passed, O‘ahu will join the Big Island, Maui and Kaua‘i, which have laws in effect condemning the use of plastic bags. The latter three islands have placed bans on plastic bags.
A ban on plastic bags will reduce the amount of trash that ends up in landfills, streets, parks and the ocean. It is imperative that people –not just Hawai‘i residents – become properly educated about the harmful effects of littering and how plastic bags contribute to it. Rather than using plastic bags, consumers should be inclined to investing in a reusable shopping bag. These bags are often sturdy and often inexpensive.
Los Angeles has held off banning plastic bags for three years, according to an April 4 article in the Los Angeles Times.
But a California Superior Court judge ruled in late March that plastic bag bans are constitutional, and the state already has in effect a 10-cent fee for shoppers who want to use a paper bag provided by the stores.
In California, only 5 percent of all plastic bags are recycled, and the rest are caught in trees, in the wilderness and washed away into the ocean. The Los Angeles Times also reported that plastic bags are the second most common litter item on beaches. On the other hand, consumers also can contribute money to a plastic bagless shopping experience. In addition to a 3 to 5-cent fee on plastic bags for businesses and stores, consumers should also have to pay a few cents for using paper bags.
Much like California’s paper bag fee, a 5-cent fee on shoppers who want paper bags can further push them to invest in a reusable bag. A small fee can add up in a matter of years, and if a person shopped twice a week and came out with three bags each visit, he or she would have spent $15 on bags alone.
Although plastic bags are affordable and convenient, prolonged use could potentially damage what is already a delicate ecosystem on Earth.
Both businesses and consumers may not be pleased about having to pay a little more for bagging items, however, it’s better to pay for it now rather than pay for much worse in the future.
The view we take is written by the editors of the Kapi‘o. We welcome all responses to this subject. Email “Letter to the Editor” at kapio@hawaii.edu.