Falmouth town meeting to consider ban on plastic bags

If approved, the article would phase out certain single-use bags within 18 months.

By Sean F. Driscoll
sdriscoll@capecodonline.com Posted Nov. 14, 2014
    


FALMOUTH - Town meeting voters will be asked next week to make Falmouth the second town on the Cape to ban plastic bags at stores within its borders.


Article 31, submitted by East Falmouth resident Don Mallinson, would phase out single-use plastic checkout bags thinner than 2.5 mils, or 0.0025 inches, by all retailers within the next 18 months. Bags that are used for dry cleaning, newspapers, produce, meat, bulk foods, wet items and similar merchandise would not be included in the ban.


If passed, the bylaw calls for fining establishments that violate the ban $50 on their first offense, $100 on the second strike and $200 for the third violation and any subsequent offenses. Stores are also required to charge a fee of at least 10 cents to customers requesting a bag made of paper or other substance, although Mallinson said he would be amenable to an amendment from the floor loosening that provision.


“There’s no reason people can’t use reusable bags,” Mallinson said. The plastic bags mess up the environment "something fierce," he said.


Mallinson said he was expecting the article to pass. He has received little push-back from his sessions with town meeting voters, and he gathered more than enough signatures to get the warrant on the ballot -- 165 supporters when he needed just 10.


Provincetown voters approved a similar ban at their Oct. 27 special town meeting. That ban, which goes into effect April 15, applies only to to the bags that are 1.5 mils or thinner.


The Falmouth Board of Selectmen voted to support the article, saying it would reduce waste and litter and accommodate business concerns by including an 18-month waiting period to allow stores to use up their stock of bags.


The fall town meeting is scheduled for Monday night at Lawrence School, 113 Lakeview Ave. A two-article special town meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, and any articles not addressed at Monday’s meeting will be finished on the second night.


Other items on the fall town meeting warrant include:

• Article 17, which transfers $278,000 from free cash to the town’s budget for special legal counsel. The money will cover costs stemming from union negotiations, personnel matters and ongoing lawsuits over the town’s municipal wind turbines.
• Article 18, funding nearly $4 million in capital projects across the town. The largest projects include $755,000 to purchase a new radio system for a planned consolidated dispatch center, $675,000 for a new fire engine and $450,000 for water main repairs.
• Article 28, submitted by resident Marc Finneran, would ask the School Committee to rescind its vote to prohibit voting at elementary schools because of concerns about safety. This year, three polling places were relocated from elementary schools to Falmouth High School before the May town election. All three had double-digit declines in voter turnout compared with the 2013 race, although that ballot included a hotly contested wind turbine issue.

Follow Sean F. Driscoll on Twitter: @seanfdriscoll.



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