The Newton City Council’s Programs & Services Finance committee will discuss a proposed expansion on the city’s plastic bag ban and adding a ten-cent fee on all check out bags, including paper bags. The rules would eliminate the current exemptions that exist for small merchants.
Summary of proposed Plastic Bag Reduction (AKA “Bring Your Own Bag) ordinance
- If any store provides a checkout bag to customers, the bag must be either a recyclable paper bag or a reusable checkout bag.
- A store that provides any type of checkout bag shall sell them for no less than ten cents ($0.10). All money collected will be retained by the store.
- Any charge for a Checkout Bag shall be separately stated on a receipt provided to the customer at the time of sale and called the “Checkout Bag Charge”.
A checkout bag does not include: a paper bag given to customers at the pharmacy for medication any bag without handles that’s used to protect items from damaging or contaminating others, such as protecting wine bottles or vegetables a bag used to contain unwrapped food.
The paper bag fee and extended plastic bag ban will be discussed on Weds. June 26.
How will this work in self check-out lanes? I don’t think the bags have UPC codes that allow customers to scan them.
@Michael Singer: In Boston, for example, you enter the number of bags you are taking. Seen the same thing recently in the UK.
Who gets the ten cents?
Given the vast business experience among our very able group of used-to-be-Aldermen, I am sure that this policy means only good things for our local establishments. If not, then at least we can all sleep well knowing that our leaders have taxed us to make nothing more than a symbolic gesture tin averting worldwide environmental disaster. Go Newton!
I’m all for it. Let’s keep pace with Vermont: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/vermont-adopts-most-comprehensive-single-use-plastics-ban/
Or if that’s too drastic for folks, we could emulate this market in Vancouver:
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/12/731927853/want-a-plastic-bag-canadian-grocery-will-try-to-shame-you
Time for the Council to consider reducing their size.
The last time I took a look at this proposal I wondered about Restaurants and the FastFood industry. Think about McDonalds for example. They made the move years ago to try and eliminate paper bags whilst dining in, but in this instance they would charge to takeout. How about Chinese Takeout / delivery. Or when in a restaurant, you’ve payed and then ask for a container to takeaway. I guess the waiter would have to request the 10c. The other thought I had was hot soup from a grocery store. They often will put the containers within another small paper bag.
I think it is great the city is taking on these issues, but I think they need to be mindful of the practicalities.
I bring my own bags, but why make our businesses less competitive than Waltham? Market Basket uses their own plastic bags for free! Now I bring my own 90% of the time. But don’t punish local businesses. We need them.
Please note that the “Bring Your Bag” ordinance was voted out favorable from Programs and Services some time ago and will be going before the Finance Committee on Wednesday evening (6/26).
@Mary, the retailer keeps the fee.
@Simon we do try and be mindful of practicalities. The fee would not apply to a paper bag given to customers at a pharmacy for medication; a bag without handles that is used to protect items from damaging or contaminating other items such as protecting wine bottles or vegetables; or a bag used to contain unwrapped food.
@Peter, I supported the Charter Commission’s recommendations but you can’t win em all.
@Elmo, a fee on check out bags has proven to be one of the most effective policies to change consumer behavior. A leading international peer-reviewed scientific journal, Science of the Total Environment, has published data that demonstrates the effect of a fee on the use of plastic bags in retail outlets in Europe was dramatic—a reduction in use of the order of 90%. A fee on plastic shopping bags, previously provided free of charge to customers at points of sale, was later adopted by other European member states. The plastic bag fee policy came into force in England in October 2015, the total number of carrier bags used at the UK’s biggest retailers has fallen by an estimated 85%.
In this country, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the City of San Jose adopted ordinances banning plastic bags and imposing a 10-cent charges on paper bags, at large retail establishments in unincorporated LA County on July 1, 2011. One year later, reports show that overall single-use bag use was reduced by 95%, which includes a 30% reduction in single-use paper bags. California has since adopted a statewide plastic bag ban and a fee on all check out bags.
There is plenty more data but you get the idea. We hope this fee will be levied less and less as more people BYOB as they shop. We cannot recycle our way out of this problem. Reduce and reuse need to be prioritized.
@Laura J. Single use plastics are on the radar.
Councilor Leary: Thanks for the correction on the committee that will be hearing this. Fixed.
Whole Foods provides a 5 cents discount per bag. I prefer this incentive of the reduction in the price paid at the checkout counter.
Perhaps both would be helpful: a reduction of 5 cents per bag brought, and also a charge for the bags sold. Many supermarkets use many more bags than is necessary; they’ll put just one or two items in a bag, then one or two items in a bag, etc.
Some supermarkets will have a bin where unused bags can be brought back but given the number of plastic bags going OUT and the number coming BACK to be recycled, it’s clear which side is “winning.”
@ Alison Leary: That’s wonderful news! Thank you for your hard work on this matter.
Councilor Leary – Let’s not give up on trying to reduce the size of the City Council. With the same enthusiasm being put forth to ban bags certainly we can get a reduction of City Councilors passed.
It’s one lousy dime. But that’s not the point. City Councilors should stand up for consumers, not screw them over…
Worse, these same Councilors seem oblivious to a host of consumer issues that affect their constituents every day. Customers being charged two different prices for the same item. Cash registers that customers can’t see. Even the way the Board of Health scores restaurant safety is very confusing for consumers…
It’s unfortunate that there’s not a single consumer advocate on the entire City Council. Just a group of people who seem way too focused on that one lousy dime.
Next up a state-wide law that is similar to this. Good work Newton.
My only question on this, is why a ten-cent fee? What was the math or logic behind it?
@Alison
I’m glad you figured out some of these issues.
@Newton mom, the 10 cent fee, which the store keeps, does not put Newton’s small businesses at a disadvantage. The problem I heard from canvassing our villages and talking directly to retailers was the high commercial rents and Amazon delivery which can dramatically cut into their business. You could help by shopping locally at Bazos, Waban Market, Walnut Market….I get that Market Basket is cheaper, especially if you are doing a big shop. That store is on the larger side and probably gives out something like 100,000 plastic bags a week.
@Jane, there is nothing stopping any retailer from crediting a customer 5 cents for bringing a re-usable. Stop & Shop used to do that but stopped offering it saying it wanted to “support other programs that continue to reduce harmful impacts to the environment”. Yes, many supermarkets do take back plastic bags and plastic film and it is recycled into decking and outdoor furniture . I encourage people to bring back plastic bags and film including bread bags and similar plastic packaging. But with the responsibility placed wholly on the consumer the usefulness of the program is probably minimal.
@Mile Striar, I have never been contacted by you to discuss a consumer protection issue such as being overcharged at the register or confusing health scores from restaurants. Have you contacted your ward councilors about this? I am happy to arrange a meeting with Health & Human Services to discuss this. Many councilors provide direct assistance to constituents ranging from concerns about pot holes, to vandalism, housing assistance, street and sidewalk safety and park improvements we just don’t blog about it. If you don’t think we are doing a good job there is still time for you to pull nomination papers and get your signatures submitted.
@Tarik, there is no hard science behind it. We didn’t want a burdensome fee, just enough to get people thinking about the issue. It also made sense to be consistent with Cambridge and Boston who charge 10 cents and five cents respectively.
@Alison Leary– You’re 100% correct. I have never contacted you about a consumer issue. The last time we chatted was right here on Village 14, when I suggested you do a rodent study before commencing your experimental curbside compost program. How’d that work out by the way? Did any rats show up in Newton?
Concord has a ban on water bottles! PLEASE get something like that done in Newton. There’s no bigger source of plastic trash that that (well, maybe coffee cups). If there is any lesson from the plastic bag ban it’s that local action can lead to changes in surrounding communities and at the state level.
@Newtoner: Great to hear you would support a ban on water bottles. What about all plastic bottles? And you are 100% correct — local action here in Newton has ripple effects beyond our borders.
Research shows people respond much more favorably to avoiding a fee than getting the same amount as a credit (loss aversion).
It is dysfunctional for stores to provide free bags and build the cost into the rest of their products. Past models have them putting a pack of gum into disposable bag. A plastic bag may be cheap for them to buy, but they still have to source, them stock them, avoid running out of them, providing recycling service for them, etc. Charging for a bag lets them put that previously free subsidy into lower costs for their actual products (in a competitive market).
@Emily Norton: I would support a ban on all single-use food and beverage containers. But realistically, bottled water would make a huge difference, because it’s not subject to the bottle deposit. Those 5 cents mean many soda bottles somehow find their way back to the store, but that does not happen with water bottles. It’s also not reasonable to use plastic for something that’s available freely from the tap.
With all these proposed bans being suggested by our City Councilors, we the consumers living in Newton will end up taking our business to Waltham and Needham. Enough already! Time for City Councilors Norton and Leary to commit their energies, leadership and enthusiasm and lead the way to reducing the size of the City Council.
@Mike Striar,
Yes, Newton (and surrounding communities) have rats but the organic pilot program was not a factor in attracting them. The 4-month pilot ran March through June 2018 and provided curbside organics collection to 200 households located in secure containers. The containers were swapped out with a clean container at every pick up. Most Newton residents put food waste into their blue carts which is much less secure. We also have a problem with open and unsecured trash dumpsters (I have plenty of photos) that are potential food sources for rodents. Of the 200 households that participated, 9 reported issues with indoor or outdoor pests at some point during the pilot which included fruit flies, raccoons, squirrels, and one instance of mice. No one reported rats.
This pilot was very successful. If you would like the report I can send it to you. It was funded by the 2017 Recycling Dividends Program grant from MassDEP.
@Peter Karg, there is already a working group that has been meeting on implementing some of the recommendations by the Charter Commission. I think I will let them complete their work first.
@Peter Karg: Some people actually prefer to shop at places that produce less plastic waste.
I’m one of the people who will start shopping more outside of Newton – specifically due to this bag ban. And I don’t think I am the only one who will take their business outside of Newton.
I hope the Newton City Council monitors the impact of the bag ban on local Newton businesses.
It’s funny to me how people wish Newton could attract more diverse businesses to the various city centers. And yet the Newton City Council makes local shopping painful- by voting for this bag ban and by failing to plan for enough parking at the upcoming development sites.
I guess a more positive way to phrase my question is: what is the Newton City Council doing to encourage more diverse businesses to grow in Newton?
I’d be curious to if anyone on the Newton Zoning and Planning board has a a comment on this.
@Alison Leary–
I support curbside organic garbage collection. I think it’s a great idea. I was opposed to you starting the program without doing a rodent study first. Parts of Newton have been experiencing a problem with rats. So starting a new program without understanding the impact seemed like a bad idea.
According to your own numbers, nearly 5% of the 200 experimental collection bins were infiltrated by pests. Extrapolate that city-wide and it means more than 1000 residents would experience pest infiltration problems from the organic garbage bins alone. That would suggest you have a lot of work to do before expanding organic garbage collection.
Let me add some detail to my earlier posts regarding consumer issues that the City Council routinely ignores…
Customers being charged different prices for the same item: Walgreens is the biggest perpetrator. Customers who do not have a Walgreens card are charged a higher price than those who do. I’m not referring to how customers accumulate and use “points.” I’m talking about the base price of an item being cheaper for a cardholder than a customer who does not have a card. [CVS on the other hand, usually enters a discount card for anyone who doesn’t have a CVS card].
Additionally, Walgreens pricing is deceptive. They post the cheaper prices of items for their card holders, and fail to price all individual items as required by law. Many Newton retailers fail to price individual items. Questionable pricing policies like this can have a disproportionate effect on seniors, and the City Council should take note.
I know you [Councilor Leary] are focused on what bags customers use. So I’m not surprised you were unaware of the pricing issues at Walgreens. I’m a little more surprised that you’re not aware of how confusing the City’s own food safety ratings are for consumers…
Cities with the most effective food safety programs require restaurants to post a letter grade for food safety that they receive from the Board of Health. Consumers can feel comfortable eating at an “A” rated eatery. Some customers may even choose to eat at a “B” rated establishment. Everyone knows what the letter grade means.
Newton on the other hand uses a sliding scale of more than 300 points to rate a restaurant’s food safety. Do you know the difference between a “300” score and a score of “315”? I sure don’t. And neither do most restaurant goers in Newton.
Since I have an office in Newton Center, and often work until after dark, I see rats fairly often scurrying about behind my building i.e. around the Pelham Street lots.
I have had mice come into my office at night (usually in the winter) and walk around as if they owned the place. And I keep my office clean.
The main cause of this I presume is the restaurants and the cafes. There are dumpsters, and they are emptied fairly often, but I’m sure the rats get a chance to chow down occasionally.
Now, consider restaurants under mixed use apartments. I have reservations (pun intended) about how many people who rent a “luxury” apartment at Washington place and Austin street with a restaurant underneath. Oh sure, it looks cool in the drawings – people eating outdoors, umbrella tables, nightlife – but again, the details. What mixed use should be, in my opinion is:
First floor – stores, restaurants, retail
Second floor – offices – medical, legal, services, social worker, small business offices.
Third and fourth floor – housing.
This creates a “buffer” floor to help shield the residential spaces from the noise and smell of a restaurant.
Renting right above a restaurant or even a coffee shop is not what I would call a “Luxury”.
@Peter Karg – As you recall I led the effort that yielded 17 votes of the City Council in favor of downsizing to an 8 and 8 model in the last session. That was the closest we’ve ever come to downsizing. But Mayor Warren refused to sign on and so it could not move onto the state legislature as a home rule petition. I would still support it this time but it’s a new city council so I don’t know where people would come down. I know how much you care about this issue so you might reach out to your elected officials and urge them to support it.
Rick:
I agree with you on the second floor above the restaurant not being ideal. Noise is actually more of an issue than smell or rodents in today’s buildouts. Noise and vibrations can be very difficult to control. I’d be fine with that layout, but I note that offices don’t want to be above restaurants for the same reasons…. which is why rent discounts sometimes occur.
Hi,
Are compostable bags exempt from this 10 cent bag fee? (And if not, what is the rationale?)
My company cafeteria provides plant-based forks, knives, cold cups, coffee cups, plates, straws, and bags.
Compostable bags seems like a great way to go to me.
p.s. I just learned that compostable doggie poop bags exist too! It’s great to see that the recycling market is innovating…
@Karen: Are plant-based bags always compostable?
I do not think that forcing customers to bring their own bag, and charging a fee if they don’t, is a good idea.
First, it does not protect the environment. Second, it harms low income people by increasing their costs for shopping and disposing of their trash and recyclables. Third, it drives business away from brick and mortar stores. Fourth, it may have a negative impact on newspaper sales (due to the increased difficulty of paper recycling). And finally, and most important to me, is that it creates a public health hazard.
Many people do not know that if you use reusable bags, they must be washed thoroughly on at least a weekly basis to avoid the buildup of harmful bacteria in the bags. This requires all customers to use more water and energy, and for some people, there will be increased use of bleach or disinfectants, which may not be good for the environment.
The few studies which have been done on reusable shopping bags show that the vast majority of people who use them *never* wash their bags. The biggest risk from using dirty bags is contracting foodborne illness, which is most deadly for young children and people with illnesses that cause them to be immunocompromised (i.e. having a weakened immune system).
Further, since reusable bags will have to be carried around, especially by those who do not drive, they can pick up and harbor germs from unclean places, such as bathrooms. These germs can be spread to others when a customer puts contaminated bags in a shopping cart or on the checkout counter. There have been reported cases of viruses being spread among a group of people who handled a contaminated shopping bag.
The risk of illness and the spread of infection can be reduced if customers keep their bags clean. However, achieving this requires education and compliance on the part of all of the customers. For this reason, if a law is passed in Newton forcing the majority of people to use reusable shopping bags (many wealthy people will just pay the 10-cent bag fee), I will shop outside of Newton where such a law is not in effect. And, I will also rely more heavily on online shopping (even though I prefer to shop locally).
If customers choose to shop outside of Newton to avoid the ramifications of our bag law, we will find ourselves with more empty storefronts. If more customers shop online, we will generate more trash and/or recycling material because each shipment involves a shipping box and packing materials.
Other problems are that refusing to provide a clean, free bag for shopping (especially food shopping) increases food costs and living expenses for the people who can lease afford it. Low income people will be forced to buy trash bags instead of using shopping bags to discard their trash (as most do now). They will also recycle less because most low income people, as well as most apartment dwellers of all income levels, use paper bags from stores to recycle their paper items.
I know these things because I have gone through difficult times where I had to live on a very small budget, so I am familiar with penny-pinching. I have also worked as a volunteer helping people who need financial assistance and have witnessed their struggles.
In addition, I was speaking to an elderly relative of mine recently and this topic came up. She lives in a Senior Community which houses several hundred residents, many of whom are still living independently in apartments. She told me that she never brings her own bags to the supermarket because she likes to get paper bags there. She uses the paper bags to collect her newspapers (she subscribes to a local newspaper) and then takes the bag to their community recycling bins. She sees this as a good thing to do because *both* the newspapers and the paper bag get recycled.
If this elderly relative lived in a place with a 10-cent paper bag fee, she would not pay for the paper bags. She would probably end up putting her newspapers in the trash, which is what low income people will also do. Some people might just stop subscribing to the newspaper altogether, but other paper items, such as catalogs, will still end up in the trash (landfill).
So, in your quest to get people to use reusable shopping bags, you will end up causing people to buy more plastic trash bags, which are not biodegradable. And, you will cause many people to recycle less.
I think the law we have now is fine. We have gotten rid of the lightweight plastic bags, which were polluting our environment, without unduly burdening people in their day-to-day lives.
Before passing the proposed law, I do hope that the Councilors will at least consider the negative impact on local businesses, the budgets of the poor, the negative environmental impacts and, of course, the public health ramifications.
We could do more for the environment by focusing on single-use plastic items, as some other commenters have already mentioned.
If the City Council does pass this law, I hope that they will include a plan for educating the public about the importance of regularly sterilizing their reusable shopping bags for their own health and for the health of others.
Hi @Newtoner,
I know that my workplace cafeteria has compost bins alongside of the recycling and trash bins. The compost bins are used to dispose of the plant-based plates, cups, bags, etc.
I am not sure if all plant-based bags are compostable, though. I just know that my workplace provides plant-based bags that can be composted.
Thanks, Karen