BRUNSWICK
The Brunswick Town Council is shaping an ordinance to ban plastic bag use at retail shops throughout town, and a public hearing on the ordinance is set for March 6, 2017.
If enacted, retailers would have until next September to use up their supply of single use plastic bags.
Chairwoman Sarah Brayman said businesses would be educated regarding the ban in February.
Meanwhile, councilors are at odds over keeping bags out of coastal waters and the landfill.
Councilor Kathy Wilson favors a ban on plastic and a 5 cent charge to shoppers requesting paper bags to carry home their purchases.
Plastic bags do not decompose in landfills and have ecologically fallen out of favor. Charging a customer a nickel to use a paper bag may encourage shoppers to shift to reusable bags.
Brunswick Recycling and Sustainability Committee Chairman Mike Wilson wrote in a letter that Brayman referred to Monday night that paper bags are bulkier to store. Paper takes longer to break down in a landfill yet it does eventually do so.
According to Mike Wilson, no paper mill in Maine is making paper bags.
Councilor Dan Harris remains skeptical of paper bags’ environmental harm.
“I don’t believe the condemnation that’s been levied on paper,” he said.
Setting guidelines within a proposed ordinance to give retailers the support needed to carry out an ordinance is encouraged. That way, the retailer could honestly tell a customer the town mandates a 5 cent cost per paper bag for example and that plastic bags are no longer an option.
“I think any of the approaches have merit, but have something out there as a template,” Councilor Suzan Wilson said.
Brayman encourages a reuse policy, where tote bags would be used over and over for groceries and other carry-out items.
However, Councilor John Perreault noted the irony in the made-in-China bags each councilor received recently from the local Bring Your Own Bag group.
“This is not a good way to go,” he said, speaking of China’s tarnished image regarding air pollution in that country.
lconnell@timesrecord.com
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