Brookline’s done it, Marblehead is on it, now Newton is considering banning the plastic bag.
Until last week, Newton’s Public Facilities Committee thought about adding a fee on plastic bags, after being pushed by Green Decade and a vocal environmentalist from Ward 1 named, uh, Alison Leary. Now she’s Alderman Leary, and the committee has decided fees are for Milquetoast’s; the city should consider a ban. And add a fee for paper bags. Coincidence? (Full disclosure, Alison is a friend). The discussion starts again Wednesday.
Also the Leaf Blower Task Force idea seems to have new legs. Otherwise, if it’s
not a capital project (check out Mr. Rooney’s cool list of big project progress in the documents), it’s parking. Well, seems so.
The Community Preservation Committee, fresh from hearing about a proposal for West Newton’s Allen House (proposed cultural/historic center) and the continued restoration of burial grounds, will this week hear two parks proposals. Next month–city hall improvements and archives.
You, too, can have fun handicapping the proposals, by looking at the proposal page here.
Wouldn’t they need to get some kind of statehouse approval to collect a bag fee? There are only a few ways the state allows a municipality to gain revenues from residents and this fee would be collecting revenues from non-residents as well as residents. It doesn’t feel like the BoA can do this alone
This item is being discussed in Programs and Services, not Public Futilities. I co-docketed this item last term to charge a fee for plastic bags after conferring with various people, including large retailers. The P&S committee members overwhelmingly supported a ban instead, so we NAN’d the original item and the committee docketed a new item that will take up a ban. A number of nearby communities, like Brookline, have already passed a ban and Cambridge is about to vote on a ban which could serve as a model for Newton, which is what we will discuss this Wednesday.
Now that I have some free time on my hands, and have received some grass roots support from a local group that has formed, I will be renewing my efforts to establish a task force to come up with leaf blower regulations. Previously, the BOA received interest from citizens but none from landscapers and other stakeholders who are to be included in a task force. I will be pursuing this in earnest, so if you are interested in participating, please contact the BOA Clerk, David Olson, at [email protected].
The recent addition of Alison Leary and Emily Norton to P&S and the BOA, both of whom are environmental activists, is a welcome development in my view.
It’s not so clear cut which is worse, paper or plastic, as people would have you believe. I’d support a fee on all bags and asking people before providing them. Maryland has done it – when I was there on business last year, the checkout person at CVS asked if I wanted a bag and warned me about the fee. A fee would also cut down on needless automatic double-bagging.
Of course, what we really need is for this to be done statewide.
mgwa, there already is a fee for the bags we use. The retailers build the cost of the bags into their operating costs. If you are suggesting that the city receive the fee, then call it what it really is, another tax by the city.
I agree with you that people, who want to ban either or both the plastic and paper options, have not presented a viable model for the financial and environmental costs of retail packaging options. They typical rely on an emotional presentation of the local potential negative impacts rather than looking at the full picture and the overall impact of changing the status quo.
I know Cambridge looked at a fee at first, but the impacts on businesses was a bit too much for them (also it may not fly at the legislature level). It is totally not fair to make one business charge for a bag and less than a mile away another gives it away for free. Now I doubt it would have much impact on people shopping at a specific place but it would be a very hard sell and would just not sit right with folks (very understandably). That said a fee should only be done on a state or regional (aka New England States) wide level. Lets ban the plastic bags, or should I say non ISO certified compostable bags. Yes, paper has its own issue but at least it breaks down. The wildcard in this is dog walkers, many of whom use plastic bags as poop bags, and with the ongoing poop problem there could be an issue there, I wonder how Brookline dealt with that (presuming there are a large number of dog owners there as well as here).
When did bags land on the list of public enemies? Can someone explain what’s wrong with bags? I’m asking seriously, because the point of all this escapes me.
Patrick – I don’t care if the stores get to keep the fee, as long as it’s explicit instead of implicit.
Mike – there’s nothing wrong with bags if you reuse them until they’re no longer usable. The problem is that it’s wasteful of resources when people use them once and toss them (whether into the garbage or recycling).
One reason I’d rather not ban plastic bags is that they fit easily into a purse so I can always have one with me and reuse them multiple times.
John_on_Central – that’s why I think a statewide solution is best.
Are cities and towns also planning to ban the sale of plastic bags currently offered on their shelves? I would guess the stores sell lots of plastic bags and items packaged in plastic.
Also, will Newton revise the trash regulation that requires us to place trash in bags within the blue barrels? I notice the city has removed the word “plastic” from the website yet plastic bags are not prohibited. The orange bags are still required for overflow, and they are still plastic. This appears to be a similar situation to where the city tells us to shovel our sidewalks yet it does not appear to comply with its own regulation.
I agree with mgwa that sensible people already reuse the plastic and paper bags they bring home from the stores. I am against any addtional fee since the cost is already factored into the current prices. The store can put up signs to that effect if that would appease people.
Patrick – it’s not plastic packaging, just the plastic bags that items are put in. And why shouldn’t the cost be taken out of the prices of the groceries and put separately? After all, if I bring my own bags, why should I be paying implicitly for other people’s bag usage?
Right now, Whole Foods does something related, which is to give you a 5 cent discount for bringing your own bags.
mgwa, you pays for other people’s bags for the same reason that you pay for the refrigeration costs even when you do not buy any dairy or frozen foods.
Plastic is plastic so why isolate the bags. Should we ban rubber shoes since rubber is a form of plastic that is not recycled and has a long decomposition rate?
As Mike Striar asks: what is so special about plastic, multi-use shopping bags that they specifically need to be eliminated from our society?
Admittedly, I don’t know enough about this issue. But it seems to me that consumers have a right [but perhaps not a means] to weigh-in on this decision. Worth noting, Marblehead’s ban came from the Board of Health, but it requires approval of a Town Meeting that’s yet to take place. Since Newton is a city, we have no such forum. And I’d be very concerned about the Board of Alderman making this decision with just the usual volume of public input.
@Patrick – I’ve already made it clear that I don’t agree with differentiating between plastic and paper bags and believe we should be discouraging use of both, encourage people to bring reusable bags with them.
I happen to like local control on forced distribution of a material that has no real benefit to anything — the plastic bag. We’ve “allowed” the BoA to control commerce in many ways. They voted to disallow tobacco products at specific outlets that sell prescription drugs. They voted against the sale of wine at certain supermarkets resulting in reduced competitive pricing. The BoA clearly feels that they can make any rule that they can say helps society. But, where the collection of revenue is concerned, the BoA has no right to collect it from me (a resident) without some voter input. Moreover, they have no right to collect revenue from outsiders — non residents — without state approvals. That part doesn’t feel right and it should not be tolerated as a power of what are merely Ward representatives. Who gave Ward reps the authority to charge extra for a transaction at CVS? If CVS is doing something wrong, deal with them not the public
It’s not only bags which we should be looking at but recycling as a whole. Someone in my neighborhood hasn’t put out a recycling bin or separated yard cuttings from regular trash in 2 years but I don’t believe we have anything to counter such behavior. Lexington has made recycling mandatory, and Arlington, while not as strict, at least insists that a recycling bin is placed at curb-side otherwise they won’t take your trash.
Glad I shop at Stop and Shop in Watertown.
I am opposed to this fee/tax. Are we not already paying for take out bags (paper/plastic) in our grocery/goods costs? This is a way for government to reap more income and at the same time tell you that they are reshaping your habits and improving the environment. I oppose this fee.
mgwa, I agree encouraging people to use reusable bags is excellent. Mandating using reusable bags and/or penalizing for not using reusable bags is not acceptable.
Doesn’t the board of alderman have any more pressing issues to be dealing with?? The costs of bags are already built into the price of retail products.
Reusable grocery bags are notoriously unsanitary, gradually accumlating filth and enviromental dirt with every use. Plastic bags are very much reusable, recyclable, and are an important end market for recycled plastic, thereby giving recycled waste its value as a raw material.
I thought the original idea was more of a fine — i.e., if a business using plastic doesn’t offer a free alternative, the monthly fine is $n. That would be entirely acceptable to me. A per bag fee is in no way acceptable. We can’t require $n for every pack of smokes or every bottle of rum; no way should the state allow this revenue opportunity on commerce activities. A fine in commercial terms is either a cost of business (in Newton) or a persuasive influence to change practices. Nothing gets changed if the consumer ultimately pays.
I think Janet Sterman said it best when she said “I am opposed to this fee/tax. Are we not already paying for take out bags (paper/plastic) in our grocery/goods costs? This is a way for government to reap more income and at the same time tell you that they are reshaping your habits and improving the environment. I oppose this fee.”
Didn’t we already have an $11.4 Million annual tax increase last year, which was sold as a way to fund infrastructure yet went to fund more lavish compensation growth for unionized employees?