Friend or Foam: Hawaii’s Failed Foam Bans

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Order a plate lunch in Hawaii and chances are you’ll be served food in a plastic foam shell.

But that’s not true everywhere. As we reported recently, cities in California and elsewhere have banned plastic foam. And the California Legislature may vote next year on a proposed statewide ban.

In Hawaii, similar efforts to ban plastic foam stalled in 2008 and 2009.

Proponents of the ban say opposition from businesses convinced lawmakers to table bills that would have outlawed the containers.

“The industry came up and they made a big hoopla,” said Mike Victorino, the county councilman who proposed the ban in Maui in 2009.

Foes of the ban say switching from cheap polystyrene foam to biodegradable products will hurt businesses’ bottom line.

“It’s a huge cost increase with very little benefit to the environment,” said Lauren Zirbel, the interim director of the Hawaii Food Industry Association, which opposed the bans. Producing biodegradable alternatives can require agricultural land, she said.

Civil Beat searched the Hawaii Legislature’s archives for bills mentioning “polystyrene,” the chemical name for plastic foam. We found a handful of measures from the past few years.

Some attempted to ban polystyrene food containers outright. Others tried to set up studies on health risks and polystyrene alternatives. Today we’re focusing on the bans.

The ‘Lonely Battle’ for a Hawaii Foam Ban

In 2009, the House and Senate considered bills that would have banned vendors and state agencies from serving food on polystyrene. Those bills were referred to the 2010 legislative session, with no action taken, according to the record.

But a push to ban polystyrene the year before received larger response from advocates and opponents. In 2008, legislators in the House and Senate proposed several bans.

One of those was put forward by then-State Sen. Ron Menor, the chair of the energy committee. It would have stopped restaurants from serving food in polystyrene containers, with an exemption for non-profits. It also required all disposable containers to be biodegradable or recyclable.

He says now that he proposed the measure to cut down on litter. Plus, he thought the bill would enhance the state’s national reputation. “I felt that Hawaii could become a national leader on this important issue,” Menor said.

Local and national industry groups opposed the measure. The American Chemistry Council, the Hawaii Food Industry Association and local foam manufacturer Hawaii Foam Products argued in written testimony to the energy committee that the ban would force businesses to pay more for polystyrene alternatives.

“They were concerned an outright ban could result in higher operating costs,” said Tim Shestek, the director of state and local public affairs for the American Chemistry Council.

Supporters — including the Sierra Club, Kahea Environmental Alliance and 194 citizens — warned about adverse health and environmental effects of foam, according to an energy committee report.

Menor said lawmakers were swayed by industry arguments about rising costs if restaurants abandoned cheap polystyrene. The bill never made it to the floor for a final vote. Another Senate bill banning foam was deferred, and a House ban also died in committee.

“It was kind of a lonely battle that we were fighting,” Menor said.

Foam ‘Hoopla’ in Maui

Environmentalists and industry advocates weighed in again, when Maui County considered a bill banning plastic foam in 2009.

Victorino said he proposed the bill to cut down on the county’s garbage output. “Our landfills cannot continue to be filled with non-biodegradable items,” he said.

The bill would have stopped vendors from serving food in polystyrene containers or selling the containers. It also would have banned plastic foam containers from county facilities and events.

Though it had the support of environmentalists, it also saw opposition from the plastic and food industries, such as the American Chemistry Council, Hawaii Foam Products and Maui Plastics. The Maui Chamber of Commerce asked the council committee on infrastructure management to defer the measure. State Rep. Joseph Souki, who lobbies for the council on county-level issues, testified against the ban at an October 2009 hearing.

At the end of the meeting, the council tabled the bill. But the ban may still rise from the ashes.

“It’s not dead, and there’s still a lot of support out there,” Victorino told Civil Beat. He said he hopes to resurrect the measure next year. This time, he said, he’ll be prepared to take on opponents — and he invites criticism from the plastics industry.

“I’ll want them to dispute it,” he said, “Because I’ll be disputing their figures.”

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