Honolulu Council Chair to Push Plastic Bag Ban

Flickr: swanksalot

Honolulu City Council Chair Ernie Martin says he will move to have the city join Hawaii's three other counties in banning or regulating plastic checkout bags.

"I'm probably going to push a bill for discussion matters if not in the February full Council meeting, then at least in March, no later than March," he told Civil Beat Thursday.

The Big Island passed its ordinance one day earlier, following on the heels of Maui and Kauai. That leaves Honolulu as the holdout.

"I would say it's probably going to be more challenging because we're a bigger county with significantly more business interests," Martin said in a telephone interview. "There will be a significant amount of testimony coming from the grocery industry and the retail industry in general. I'm sure there will be some intensive lobbying from that side."

After the Hawaii County vote Wednesday, Civil Beat asked Martin in an email if there's been any new push to consider a ban here on Oahu. It's been tried before, most recently in 2010. But the idea was deferred indefinitely after the administration raised concerns about enforcement and business interests complained about the cost.

In his email response, Martin said he hopes to "initiate a thorough review of issues and concerns that were previously put forth against such a ban as we hope that we will be able to craft a bill that has a reasonable chance of being adopted."

So what would such a bill look like?

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