EPA TO HONOR 44 WESTERN ENVIRONMENTAL HEROES

 

For Immediate Release: April 21, 2003

Press Office Main Line: (415) 947-8700

SAN FRANCISCO-During the agency's fifth annual Environmental Awards Ceremony in San Francisco tomorrow, U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Wayne Nastri will present plaques to 44 western organizations and individuals in recognition of their efforts to protect and preserve the environment in 2002.

"These groups and individuals have applied creativity, teamwork and leadership in addressing many of the west's most pressing and complex environmental problems," Nastri said. "Thanks to their efforts, our air, water and land will be cleaner and safer for generations to come. The winners set an example for all of us to follow."

The EPA Region 9 Environmental Awards program acknowledges commitment and significant contributions to the environment in Calif ornia, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Guam and tribal lands. Forty four groups and individuals were selected from over 200 nominees received this year from businesses, media, local, state and federal government officials, tribes, environmental organizations and citizen activists.

The winners and basis for recognition are:

LOCAL, STATE, TRIBAL OR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Hawaii Bottle Bill
Suzanne Jones, Department of Environmental Services
Gretchen Ammerman, Hawaii Department of Health
Jeff Mikulina, Sierra Club Representative
Hermina M. Morita

Hawai'i became the 11th state to pass a container deposit law or "bottle bill," and the first state to pass a bottle bill in 16 years. The Hawaii bottle bill will impose a nickel deposit on all beverage cans and bottles except milk beginning in 2005. The deposits will be refunded to consumers when the beverage containers are returned for recycling. The bill also phases in an additional charge of up to one and a half cents per beverage container that the state Department of Health will use to support recycling. If the U.S. could increase beverage container recycling from the current national rate of approximately 40 percent to at least 80 percent a rate that has been reached in most bottle bill states we c ould save the energy equivalent of 42 million barrels of crude oil, or enough energy to meet the electrical needs of 7 million U.S. homes. Hawai'i's leadership in reducing waste will breathe new life into the campaign to conserve resources and make beverage producers responsible for their packaging waste.

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