Honolulu Council Chair to Push Plastic Bag Ban

By Michael Levine 12/23/2011

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."

http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2011/12/23/14313-honolulu-council-chair-to-push-plastic-bag-ban/

As a former grocery store courtesy clerk for Times, I am all for the ban, people need to try harder.