New Bedford to ban plastic bags
City will join neighbor Dartmouth in barring single-use bags
NEW BEDFORD — If the city councilors, and it seems the mayor, have their way, customers are going to notice a change at the cash registers at some retail stores in the city.
On Thursday night, the council voted unanimously to approve a ban on single-use plastic bags at certain establishments.
The ban is specific to establishments that have a retail space of 10,000 square feet or larger or with at least two locations under the same name or same ownership within the city with retail space that totals that amount.
Now that the council has approved the ordinance that would establish the ban, it will make its way to Mayor Jon Mitchell’s desk for approval and according to his office, he intends to sign it.
“The Mayor appreciates the cooperation from the council and the discussions they’ve had about this ordinance, the positive effect it will likely have on litter in the city, and the protections it outlines for small businesses, and he intends to sign it,” Public Information Officer Jonathan Carvalho said when reached for comment.
Once it’s on his desk, Mitchell has 10 days to approve it, veto it — which would include sending his written objections to the council — or simply not return it.
If the mayor doesn’t return the ordinance to the council, the ordinance will automatically be adopted.
The ordinance describes single-use plastic bags as “a plastic film-type bag with or without handles, which is 4 mils thick or less, provided by a retail establishment.”
The ban does not extend to laundry or dry-cleaner bags, newspapers bags, or bags used to contain or wrap frozen foods, meat or fish.
If the ordinance goes into effect, the existing stock of single-use plastic bags will be phased out within six months of adoption and the establishments are responsible for properly disposing of the remainder of the stock after that time, according to the ordinance.
If an establishment violates the ban, they will be fined $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second offense, and $300 for any subsequent offense.
New Bedford wouldn’t be the first SouthCoast community to ban the use of single-use plastic bags.
In September of last year, the town of Dartmouth began enforcing its own ban on the bags over a year after the ban was first approved in a Town Meeting.
Dartmouth’s ban exempts stores with less than 5,000 square feet of gross floor space.
Reaction among shoppers in Dartmouth was mixed with some praising the town’s environmental consciousness and others complaining about the ban making it more difficult to transport their items.
The Massachusetts State Senate approved a bill in November that would implement a statewide ban on all carry-out plastic bags at retail stores.
Over a 100 cities and towns in the state have already passed their own bans, but the statewide ban would supersede them.
The bill is now being considered by the House of Representatives.
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