honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, August 4, 2006

HI-5 needs change to encourage recycling

Recyclers have been redeemed. This year, there will be no automatic penalty for being too good at turning in your beverage containers.

That buys some time to fix the state law so that it doesn't create a disincentive to recycle.

As it stands now, the law adds an extra half-cent to the 5-cent redeemable deposit and 1-cent nonrefundable fee per container if people recycle at a 70 percent rate or above. The idea was to keep enough cash flow to maintain the program.

But does it make sense to be so good at recycling only to be penalized as much as a penny more for your beverages? It makes even less sense to bear the extra charge when the state's recycling fund — currently at $24 million — is running at a surplus. A lot of that is from deposits that people merely forfeit to the state. It adds up.

But the final numbers for the year have come in, and we're only at 68 percent.

Now it's time to rethink the section of the state's HI-5 law that triggers this strange situation that — in effect — penalizes responsible citizens who love to recycle.

The answer is simply to change the existing law and give discretion to the administrators of the program, the state's Department of Health. Officials there should have the power to increase the deposit rate when the redemption rate is so high that the program no longer breaks even.

The administrators should also be able to take into account its overall funds and how fast they're being depleted. When it's needed to keep the program afloat, it makes sense to increase redemption rates.

Currently, there's that automatic trigger at the 70 percent rate. At the time the law was originally written, it may have sounded like a natural break-even point. But officials think that number is probably much higher, maybe as high as 80 percent. They should have the option to adjust the deposit amount as the situation warrants.

Legislators tried to tweak the law this year, but failed. Even the Sierra Club backs the idea. Next session, the proposal bears recycling.