On Monday, the Newton City Council approved an ordinance that will require stores to charge a ten cent fee to all paper bags and also expanded the city’s plastic bag ban to include more stores and thicker bag.
Once again, the initiative was championed by Councilor Alison Leary who told the TAB that she will now be turning the council’s attention to the following…
- Requiring stores only give straws by request.
- Straws should be compostable or reusable.
- Having water-filling stations on every floor of the Newton Public Schools
- Requiring foodware to be biodegrada
This ridiculousness might be a little more acceptable if the bag fee had gone toward sidewalk snow clearing. But I’m sure Whole Foods and Walgreens appreciate the bag money. On a personal level, I want to thank the City Council for its continued efforts to modify my behavior.
Thank you, Councilor Leary! I’m so proud of and grateful to our city leaders for taking a stand against plastic pollution. Cleaning up the planet for future generations can’t come soon enough.
The French supermarket chains (Monoprix, Carrefour) sell
foldable nylon shopping bags for €1 that fit in your pocket We bought a half-dozen of them and haven’t ever had to use a plastic or paper bag since. I wish they’d sell them in the states.
Also, I wish some of the American supermarket chains would follow the lead of Montreal’s biggest grocer, which allows customers to bring their own containers for meat, fish, bakery, deli, and prepared food.
We should be prohibiting the use of plastic water bottles and keurigs (unless they are reusable cups) within municipal government. Also, when upgrading our heating equipment, we should convert to electric and not use fossil fuels. Oh – and don’t forget citywide composting.
Way to go, Councilor Leary!
@Amy Sangiolo: Doesn’t Concord has a total ban on water bottles? That’s a lot more meaningful than just limiting use by the city.
@Newtoner: Yes. But let’s see if we can get our City to at least move forward with a ban for themselves!
@ Michael, back in the 1970s and late 1980s, Bread & Circus — before it was bought out by Whole Foods Market — allowed customers to bring in their own glass containers from home to refill bulk items; for example, fresh peanut butter straight from the grinder and honey from a large metal dispenser. Of course, the first stop one made when arriving at the store was the customer service desk, where you’d have your containers weighed and get a receipt showing the tare, which you would then present to your cashier upon checkout. Alternately, you would weigh the jar yourself and write the tare on a sticker which you’d affix to the jar. I remember being a kid and going grocery shopping with my parents, and being assigned the task of refilling the peanut butter or honey jar.
I also remember when fresh meat, poultry, fish, and cold cuts from the corresponding counters at any supermarket you shopped at would be wrapped in double sheets of paper, which would be fastened with the price sticker. And I remember when frozen foods came in square paper boxes. All of this ended around the late 1990s or early aughts, I think, and plastic has been the universal container ever since.
Requiring that all straws be reusable or compostable is a hardship for people with certain disabilities. While I have no problem with not giving them automatically and instead fighting them upon request, there’s no need to be draconian and make things more difficult for those who really need to use straws. And they should not have to prove their need or otherwise be stigmatized. it’s fine to say that the customer should be offered the choice between compostable and plastic, but they should not be completely banned. If you want to know more about this, there are plenty of articles if you Google “straws disabilities”.
Maybe Councilor Leary can now devote the same energy level to finding an acceptable plan to cut the size of the Newton City Council.
Thank you, Councilor Leary. While you’re sure to get plenty of cranky comments from voters, know that your actions are appreciated by those who can’t vote. Earlier this week we returned from Hawaii and California where plastic straws are being phased out, and my 11 year old was just asking me when Newton would do the same.
In anticipation of the fees and the eventual complete ban of all plastic bags, I’ve accumulated a lifetime supply over the past year, so bring it on.
So, when are we going to solve some issues in Newton? I can’t change the lack of a great senior center in Newton. I need leaders to do that. I can’t change the budget of the schools. I need Newton leaders to do that. I can’t change how to find a place for a new police headquarters. I need Newton leadership to do that.
How about water stations at the parks? I can bring my own water bottle but I can’t fill it up!
How about a nicer Gath pool that has a few amenities (bring your own chair and snacks) and the ability to move between the kiddie pool and the big pool?
I can change my own behaviors, and I don’t need leaders to do that. I bring my own water bottle with me. I have for years, as have my kids. I use canvas bags, however I don’t use them for carrying around raw chicken. I have a composting company. I recycle. I re-use. I donate my kids old clothes to organizations who can pass them on. I don’t need Newton leaders to tell me how to change my behaviors. What I need Newton leaders to do is solve the problems I can’t (like having three major developments occurring with no plans of how to educate the future students of these developments).
Please let me change my own behaviors. I want Newton leaders to fix things I can’t do on my own.
If you ask Councilor Leary why the City Council doesn’t focus on the main issues NewtonMom addresses above instead of getting sidetracked on ancillary issues, she says “we can walk and chew gum at the same time. “
There is a limited amount of time that elected and unelected officials have, so focusing on the MOST important priorities is the most important thing any elected official can do. If she enjoys getting sidetracked, I at least hope that other City Councilors don’t join her.
I will be doing my grocery shopping in Needham. Most unfortunate that Newton businesses will be financially impacted.
In all seriousness, can someone please explain to me what problem is being addressed by imposing a fee for PAPER bags? I’m usually against banning anything but understand the concerns with plastic bags and plastic waste in our environment but not quite sure what is accomplished by charging for paper…
Some intelligent people on this forum seem to believe in a paper bag fairy who manufactures them out of thin air and recycles them without burning any fossil fuels. All of us are among the richest and the worst polluters among the world’s population, yet a 10 cent fee is a “hardship” leading to (probably fake) threats of “I’m taking my business somewhere else”. Oh, the wretched and suffering people of Newton, do you have no shame?
Where does the 10 cents per paper bag go? Do the stores simply keep it?? Why do we have to pay for paper bags when the cost of those bags is already built into prices? Can it be collected and donated to a worthy recycling cause?
The ten cent fee doesn’t bother me, but I do wish that the funds didn’t go to the retailer. I wish it went to the City to contribute to environmental initiatives like improved walkability, public transit, trees, etc.
@ NewtonMom: You say, “Please let me change my own behaviors. I want Newton leaders to fix things I can’t do on my own.” The problem is that the majority of people haven’t been changing or won’t change their own behaviors, and the result is global plastic pollution that will only continue to get worse. By 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/01/20/by-2050-there-will-be-more-plastic-than-fish-in-the-worlds-oceans-study-says/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.def777a3d39d. If we want to clean up the planet for future generations of both human beings and animal species, drastic steps need to be taken and laws need to be changed. If not now, when?
@Newtoner– It’s not that the 10 cent bag fee is a “hardship.” It’s one lousy dime. But let me assure you, I do not believe in your “bag fairy” theory. There are actually human beings who work in the factories that make paper bags. Many of them are right here in the United States, earning a paycheck to feed their own families. Do you think anyone on the City Council even asked “how many jobs will this cost”? Do you know how many jobs this will cost? Do you care?
MMQC, yes, it would be good to fund things with the money. But then it would be a tax that would require a new mechanism to collect.
Stop and Shop, I believe, donates their Boston fees to the Emerald Necklace Concervancy.
I think the goal here is to change behavior only by separating the cost of the bag out of the cost of goods. Same idea to decouple the cost of parking from the cost of apartments. Some stores do give you a bag credit for bringing your own, but that can’t be enforced and the psychology of cost and reward are different (there are more cheapskates than virtue seekers).
Boston and Cambridge do it, I have yet to hear of businesses failing as a result. Unless you leave right on the Needham line and buy lots of bags of groceries, and are unable to bring your own bags, and have time that is worth nothing, the economics don’t work in your favor to drive elsewhere.
All that said, there are a lot of “NewtonMom”s in Newton, and they have a point. There’s stuff broken in Newton that voters need to see real urgency to fix. This isn’t a jab at Councilor Leary. It’s just that that you’ll be reminded about the bag fee every time you go to the store, but voters need to feel that the same attention is being paid to the more mundane but critical quality of life issues in Newton as well.
If we are talking about the most important issues that our city officials should address, hands down it should be climate change. Paper bags actually have a larger carbon footprint than single use plastic bags, although they biodegrade and do not pollute the water and kill marine life like plastic bags do. So do cotton or polypropylene tote bags, but at least these are reusable. I have been using mine for almost ten years on a weekly basis for all of my shopping, and I rarely if ever ask for a single use plastic or paper bag no matter where I am. So my reusable tote bags long ago offset their larger carbon footprints.
If you are looking for a way to reduce your carbon footprint (and shame on you if you aren’t, because your children and grandchildren will suffer for it), you cannot do better than sturdy, reusable tote bags which you can throw in the wash and dry on the clothesline. You go, Councilor Leary!
Ted, I agree on climate change. But as you well-ably demonstrated during your tenure, governing isn’t about addressing just the most important issue. It’s about addressing a whole host of things at once to the awareness and satisfaction of those who vote for you *and* those who don’t.
Again, this isn’t a critique of Councilor Leary, who has been an ally on bread and butter issues I care about (plus declining paper bags makes me feel like a good person when I’m really mostly a cheap skate). Every Councilor needs to impress voters with their broad competence on local quality of life issues in addition to expressing passion for these kinds of standout issues.
As many an ex-mayor in the US knows, a bold vision may get you elected, but failure to clear snow promptly during a single big storm gets you un-elected.
Councilor Leary and those who approved the ordinance are acting in the spirit of Margaret Mead’s oft-used quotation, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
If Newton passes laws that decrease plastic pollution in our city, and other cities are influenced by our behavior and take the same measures, thereby influencing states to take the same measures, then countries, then entire continents…well, then maybe, just maybe, we’ve got a fighting chance to clean up our planet.
It’s not a day too soon. People lived without plastic for thousands of years; look at what it has done to our planet in less than 100.
@Mike Striar –
That’s a really powerful point about protecting the human-being jobs in paper bag factories. Similarly, we should all have protested the smoking bans of the 1990s in order to protect the poor human beings trying to make a living working in North Carolina cigarette factories. Ditto the asbestos bans of the 1980s, which resulted in hundreds of lost jobs in the Quebec towns of Thetford Mines and Asbestos. And shame on you bleeding-heart commies who propose an assault-weapons ban: assault weapons are made by hard-working human beings in Springfield, and you’re going to cost them their jobs.
@Peter Karg –
Very pleased to hear that you’ll be coming over to my hometown of Needham to do your grocery shopping, ostensibly so you can avoid the 10-cent bag surcharge! Just a heads-up: you’re looking at about 10 miles roundtrip, or $5.80 using the IRS mileage methodology for gas+depreciation. So you’d end up needing to request a few dozen bags to make it worth your while.
I honestly wouldn’t recommend the Needham supermarkets, though – I worked at Sudbury Farms in high school and it’s basically crap…for example, they still put a ton of chemical junk in their bakery/bread products. Otherwise our only non-Roche Bros. alternative is the world’s tiniest Trader Joes, where the selection is very limited and their produce really sucks.
Oh and Sud Farms’ “no tipping” sign is only there for show – I was on shopping cart duty and I can’t remember anyone ever not tipping me. So that’ll be another two bucks (20 bags) down the drain right there…I’d urge you to think the economics of this one through.
@Michael- Maybe next the City Council will want to ban the sale of all meat and poultry products from the Supermarkets. It’s enough already. Instead of focusing on municipal problems such as street and sidewalk repairs, better lighting and pedestrian safety a few on the City Council look for items they can ban. Time to focus on reducing the City Council size and offering the citizens of Newton a workable plan to do so.
Is there any info on what happened with some of the other items they voted on this week? i.e. shortening the parking ban? (I’m not holding my breath; I assume if that passed we would have heard about it already)
The parking ban decision was postponed to either the August or September meeting. I don’t recall which.
Same deal with Mark Development’s offer to dedicate 10,000 sf of Washington Place’s 40,000 sq of commercial space to local merchants (not including the Barn) in exchange for being allowed to locate a bank of less than 3,800 feet there.
I find paper bags most useful for collecting paper and other recycling items before putting in the green bin that is collected curbside. What do people use to recycle their paper if not paper bags? It seems like this fee will make recycling more expensive for residents, which might be a disincentive and generate more items going into the trash that would otherwise be recycled. Was this issue discussed in the debate on this topic?
Thank you for the update, Greg!
Mary Mary: You’re welcome. I’m guessing the TAB’s team of reporters were covering other meetings Monday night.
It’s probably enough to say that encouraging people to use less plastic is a noble goal given its deleterious effects. No need for the lace curtain environmentalist Kool Aid.
When I was in college I worked a cash register ( ncr mechanical, and I had to make change in my head, oh the higher math ) at Hi Lo foods, a discount “no-name” market in Washington Square on Beacon Street. We charged 3 cents a bag, that was 1979. This was just a price saving thing- people weren’t worried about climate change. 3 cents is about 11 cents in today’s value. I don’t think it will make much difference. People paid the 3 cents back then, except for some elderly people on fixed incomes.
As I sit here tonight with the windows open and hearing the roar of the pike, still, at 8:30 pm- btw, the pike noise starts at 4 am, sometimes wakes me up, and continues until 2 AM – some how, I don’t think this gesture will really make much difference. Anyone thinking of taking a plane for a vacation is going to use way more carbon than they will save bringing their own bags to Whole Foods. Or driving to the cape a few times, taking the ferry to MV ( boats are terribly fuel inefficient). Any of those transportation options for vacation will use a lot of carbon.
Unfortunately, small gestures are nice, and no doubt add up – I”m on my third Hybrid sedan that gets 45 mpg average – but we’re going to have to move to coping strategies. And one thing I do not understand is why there’s so much development in the Seaport district when it’s going to be underwater, and in not too long. Shouldn’t we be discouraging that? Are we taxpayers going to have to “bail out” Boston like we bailed out the banks in 2008?
@Greg, I would suggest a different headline: The City of Newton Joins Boston and Cambridge to Prioritize Waste Reduction and Reuse and Move Ahead towards a More Sustainable Future.
Just to clarify- I would require that plastic straws only be given by request. Paper/ edible or biodegradable straws are easily substituted.
@Michael, yes, Europe and Canada are ahead of us on many reuse and waste reduction initiatives. I didn’t know about customers bringing their own containers at the supermarket. I am having discussions with the Health Department about customers bringing reusable containers for takeout foods at eating establishments.
@Meredith, I did have a discussion with the Commission on Disabilities about plastic straws. They were concerned about the impacts of a ban. “Upon request” seems to be the best approach.
@Newton Mom, clearly this 10 cent fee will not impact you at all. But there is a lot of data that shows a fee on checkout bags has a dramatic effect on reducing the number of bags distributed to consumers. This ordinance is all about incentivizing waste reduction and reuse and getting people thinking about a more holistic approach.
Many of the issues that you list are very complex, long range initiatives involving many stakeholders that takes time to plan, design and figure out how to pay for. For example, you should take a look at Paul Levy’s thoughtful comments on a prior thread regarding New CAL.
The Gath Pool is on the Capital Improvement Plan for replacement. I am also frustrated with the lack of working water stations at the parks. I would love your advocacy on moving this forward. Happy to give you the full story on that issue upon request, as well the information on future school enrollment projections. That was also a topic on this blog not too long ago.
Thanks to Laura J., Mike Halle and Ted Hess Mahan for thoughtful comments.
Thank you Councilor Leary for your leadership on this issue and so many other environmental initiatives.
@Alison
I thought the fountains such as Albemarle were turned off because of lead levels in the water. Probably an expensive fix to exchange some pipes.
We went to Johnnys deli the other night and the waitress asked if we wanted straws.
I think that’s a good thing.
Using a canvas bag to take home the wild salmon flown in from Alaska or the fruit and vegetables flown from Chile ….not so much.
We pay a price for fresh food all year round. A big part of that price is unfortunately CO2.
When I was very young we has a large garden and my stay at home mom used to can vegetables for the winter. We also ate canned and frozen vegetables frequently. We ate much more seasonally. We didn’t have strawberries in January.
If we went back to this mode of living it would reduce carbon much more than reusing bags.
They’ll tax the pennies in your eyes..
Rick Frank, urban gardening/farming has a complex relationship with a better environment. This article spells out some of the nuance:
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/15/11660304/urban-farming-benefits
Something you point to extends this idea, though. We now expect fresh strawberries to available year round. That’s not really how nature works, and only through herculean efforts of modern commerce, transportation, and packaging can we possibly get them. The modern supermarket abstracts us from this process. Urban farming provides ground truth.
If you’re interested in how much energy is used to bring food to our plates, check out this USDA report (Energy use in the US Food System), particularly Figure 7:
https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/46375/8144_err94_1_.pdf?v=0#page=26
The demand for instant convenience is hitting us with home delivery as well. Until recently, it was hoped that on-line shopping would reduce car trips and thus produce more efficient delivery. Unfortunately, the demand for one-day, same-day, or two-hour delivery is reversing some of those gains.
At least strawberries travel in big, relatively efficient cargo ships and by rail.
Being able to garden and preserve food comes from a place of privilege. Many residents in Newton live in apartments and condos without a yard or some people work more than one job to make ends meet and don’t have the time to devote to doing this, and some people might not have the space to stockpile cans or have a large enough freezer. Some people are not good gardeners and some people have a lousy harvest some years. We have a modest garden and enjoy preserving food, but it could never get my family through the winter. Last year we got less than a dozen tomatoes all year in spite of our efforts. It’s all a really nice idea and I enjoy doing it all as a hobby, but it’s not a practical solution for a lot of people. And obviously being a localvore is better for the environment, but I still need to provide nutritious food for my family even if it means buying items at the store out of season.
@Peter Karg. For the past year or so, Sud Farms seems to be strictly enforcing the no-tipping rule. Whenever i try to tip an employee on ‘cart duty’, there they refuse it, even when i insist they take it. And i really think Sud Farms should ease up on this and let them accept. It would make me, as a customer, feel good. And i remember how appreciated even a small tip made me feel for helping customers take purchases to their cars when i worked retail. Thank’s for the ‘tip’ about the bakery additives, though.
@Alex Blumenstiel, thanks for the clarification – I’m speaking as a Sud Farms alumnus of 25 years ago and nowadays since we live in Needham, we always walk there, so I haven’t experienced the carryout service as a customer. At orientation we were told that we could be fired for taking tips and that “secret shoppers” were making their rounds to keep us honest. I know that over the years there have been some employees with intellectual disabilities who have been very diligent about refusing tips, but for the most part none of my fellow Needham High classmates or Haitian colleagues ever refused tips (BTW, big shout out to my Haitian colleagues, especially Franklin who now works at the Four Corners Whole Foods, for making sure that I never got less than an A on my French homework).
In terms of chemical junk in the bread, for some reason the Roche Bros. family continues to use L-cysteine (allegedly synthesized from human hair and/or poultry feathers) and DATEM for their house-brand bakery bread. They told me a few years ago that they’d get rid of that stuff, but they never did. Their baguette is pretty good though – it’s shipped frozen from Montreal as a parbaked product, either from Première Moisson or Boulart, both of whom are first-class. Also the Stonefire naan is shipped frozen from Toronto and is quite delicious and preservative-free. But for truly fresh bread you can’t beat the Pain d’Avignon at the Needham Street Stop & Shop, IMHO.
On the topic of waste reduction, I think that wasteful online delivery packaging should be taxed locally on a per-gram basis. Apparently the Supreme Court’s South Dakota vs. Wayfair decision allows municipalities (not only states) to do this. Does anyone know if Newton could attempt such a thing? I’d be willing to bet that the average Newton resident consumes far more paper and plastic in their daily Amazon shipments than they do through their grocery bags.
An empty gesture by the empty suits at city hall
This is how people who have not other means of making a difference convince themselves that they are doing good in the world.
MMQQ Well in the senior housing at the end of Brookside Ave, there are at least 2 vegetable gardens. And many flower gardens. I don’t think they can them, but they are in subsidized housing so privileged they’re not. I grew up in central NY, somewhat rural. Even if people didn’t garden, they canned vegetables and jams etc. for the winter by getting extras from their neighbors or just buying extra when in season. I have friends who still live there and do it. It is far from privileged- in fact, the opposite. Those with the money will buy the “fresh” vegetables shipped from Mexico and South America. My retired schoolteacher friend cans fruit and vegetables for the winter. In Glass canning jars that hip urban restaurants serve water in. ;>)
In fact, our urban lifestyles with 365 days “fresh” vegetables is a bigger carbon drag than any paper bags. Chilean sea bass? Sockeye Salmon from Alaska? We had frozen fish sticks in central New York. I didn’t have fresh ocean fish until I moved to Boston.
People used to can pickles, smoke meat and fish, salt cod, etc. to preserve it for when it was in season. Big full size chest freezers are common up there. And not for Trader Joe’s appetizers.
Some people even think the abandoning of seasonal eating has contributed to the rise in food allergies.
The problem of climate change is beyond my imagination. I believe the best we can do at this point – unless we’re all willing to live – and eat – like 1899 – is to mitigate. Build sea walls, berms, and stop new developments that are going to be flooded.
@Mike Halle
Interesting document. I note
” Note that 10 percent or more of total energy flows for fresh fruits and fresh vegetables are for freight-related services, which is about twice the average for all foods.”