GREENFIELD — Could Greenfield become the latest community in the state to dump plastic bags?
City Councilors Sheila Gilmour and Tim Dolan hope so and have proposed an ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags at checkout counters in the city. Gilmour believes the ordinance, which is based on one in Cambridge, would reduce the harm plastic bags have on the environment.
The proposed ordinance would ban retail locations from using disposable plastic bags where customers check out. Instead, bags that are recyclable, compostable or reusable will be allowed, with businesses allowed to charge for the different bags.
If passed, businesses could be fined up to $300 a day if they aren’t compliant. Fines would come after a warning and a 14-day period for correction. Businesses would have a year after the ordinance is passed to get in line with the new rules but could get an extension for as long as two years if the ordinance “would cause undue hardship,” the proposal reads.
The proposed ordinance could allow for items like meat, produce and newspapers to be put in disposable plastic bags, according to Gilmour.
The ordinance could take months to go through council, Gilmour said, but she hopes the process can start as early as the City Council’s Appointments and Ordinance Committee meeting June 13.
According to MassGreen.org, a website that provides resources for plastic bag bans, 79 communities in the state have approved regulations on plastic bags, including Athol and Northampton. A statewide ban has been proposed to the state Legislature previously, as well.
Gilmour said plastics have hurt the environment in multiple ways. According to Gilmour, fossil fuel products used to make plastic bags are harmful to the environment. And when the bags are thrown away they can end up in waterways, impacting animals and their habitats. The bags don’t fully break down in the environment either, Gilmour said, which has resulted in remnants of plastic waste floating in the ocean.
“They’re not going to go away, the only thing we can do at this point is not make it any worse,” Gilmour said of plastic bag waste.
“Right now, we don’t have a good way of tackling that,” she said.
But Gilmour believes the ordinance would be a step in the right direction.
The Cambridge ordinance has been in place a couple years “and hasn’t hurt the businesses in Cambridge,” she said.
According to Gilmour, residents pushed her to propose the ordinance after last year’s election.
Those constituents included members of Greenfield Rights of Nature, an environmental advocacy group that previously pushed for a ban on plastic bags, as well as plastic foam food containers and single-use plastic water bottles.
The group got non-binding questions for all three of the products on the local ballot in 2015. Voters supported a ban on plastic foam containers but kept plastic bags or single-use bottles. Sandra Boston of Greenfield Rights of Nature said opinions at the polls on plastic bags was almost evenly divided, with a difference of just 221 votes — 2,242 to 2,021.
Following the non-binding questions, the council voted to ban single-use, plastic foam take-out containers in June 2016. The council membership has changed since then and may now have the votes it needs.
“We are in a losing battle with ourselves … with our addiction to convenience. That’s what has to change,” Boston said.
You can reach Dan Desrochers at:
ddesrochers@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 257