BEVERAGE CONTAINER FEE TO DECREASE BY HALF CENT

Lower annual redemption rate triggers a decrease of container fee

News Release from Hawaii DoH, July 27, 2015 

HONOLULU – The Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH) is notifying manufacturers, distributors, and importers of HI-5 beverage containers who are registered with the state of a decrease in the recycling program’s 1.5-cent container fee. Effective Sept. 1, 2015, the fee will decrease to one-cent per container in response to the state’s redemption rate, which decreased from 72.6 percent in fiscal year 2014 to 68.4 percent in the last fiscal year, which ended in June 2015.

“Since its inception, the HI-5 program has recycled more than 6.67 billion containers,” said Keith Kawaoka, DOH deputy director of Environmental Health. “Despite the lower redemption rate during fiscal year 2015, Hawaii residents still managed to recycle an estimate of more than 640 million containers, helping to significantly reduce litter and conserve resources.”

The deposit beverage container law requires the DOH to annually review the container redemption rate for the 12-month period that extends from July 1 through June 30. If the redemption rate is below 70 percent for the period, the department is required by law to set the container fee to one-cent per container effective Sept. 1. The mechanism for annually adjusting the container fee was included in the law from its inception to assure appropriate funding for the operation of the program.

“This fee is often passed on to retailers, which in turn passes it on to consumers. It is added to the five-cent deposit charged for each container at the register, so the public may see reduced fees at some retailers when purchasing beverages in HI-5 containers,” added Kawaoka.

The “container fee” provides the revenue that funds the Deposit Beverage Container (DBC) program. Container fee revenues are used to pay handling fees to certified redemption centers around the state and to support a variety of administrative activities required to implement the DBC program.

For more information on the state’s Deposit Beverage Container Program, visit http://health.hawaii.gov/hi5/ 

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