We had lots of great testimony yesterday for SB 1363 and the other plastic bag ban bills! Another very important hearing tomorrow (2/10/11) at 11am for HB 998 (view bill text) at the State Capitol room 225 (415 S. Beretania). If you haven't already, please submit testimony for this HB 998 plastic bag fee bill by 4pm TODAY (2/9) at www.capitol.hawaii.gov/emailtestimony. Here's some talking points for testimony you can slap together or just write a couple original sentences about why you support a $.10 fee on single-use plastic bags:
- I am writing in support of HB 998 as I feel a $0.10 fee on single-use plastic bags would encourage consumers to reduce waste, thereby protecting our oceans, food-chain and landfills from plastic pollution.
- Single-use plastic bags are used for about 15 minutes, but never fully biodegrade (even so-called "biodegradable" bags, which can contain up to 90% plastic). These plastic bags end up flying into our oceans and streams, breaking into millions of tiny particles that absorb toxins and are then mistaken for food by fish. This results in plastic making its way back up the food-chain to our dinner tables.
- It’s estimated that Americans use over 380 billion plastic bags and wraps a year, costing an estimated $64 billion in tax dollars wasted on plastic bag clean up! According to an article in the Honolulu Advertiser (March 8, 2010), people on Oahu use an estimated “300 million bags or more annually.” San Francisco estimates the external/hidden consumer cost of each plastic bag is $0.17 due to cleanup and landfill processing.
- Plastic (and paper) bag fees and bans have been enacted all over the world with great success in reducing waste and encouraging sustainable behavior in consumers. In our nation’s capitol and in other countries like Australia, Italy, and Mexico, they placed a small fee on these wasteful petroleum products. In Washington, D.C., plastic bag use dropped 60% in the first month! In Ireland, their use dropped 90% in one year because of bag fee legislation.
- I would also recommend applying this $0.10 fee to any disposable checkout bag (see SB 1363). A main goal of this bill is to encourage consumers to bring their own bag, not simply switch off plastic bags for single-use paper bags, as paper bags have their own environmental cost.
- Reusable cloth and nylon bags can usually be purchased for a dollar (sometimes free) and used for years. We must start encouraging sustainable behavior in consumers to protect our environment and food-supply from toxic plastics as well as save space in our already overflowing landfills.