By Richard Kaufman
Greenwich has gone green.
On Monday night, the Representative Town Meeting voted to ban single-use plastic checkout bags at local businesses by passing the Reusable Checkout Bag Ordinance, with no fee attached, 141-54-2.
“No Business Establishment shall provide or sell a Single-Use Plastic Checkout Bag to a consumer in the Town of Greenwich,” according to a section of the ordinance. “No Business Establishment shall provide or sell a Single-Use Plastic Checkout Bag at any Town facility, Town-managed concession, Town-sponsored or Town-permitted event unless otherwise permitted by the Conservation Commission.”
The ordinance had the support of nearly 60 businesses, organizations and private schools. It will take effect in six months, in order to allow business establishments time to work through their existing inventory of plastic checkout-bags and convert to recycled paper bags.
If the Conservation Commission determines that there’s been a violation of the ordinance, a written warning will be issued to the business establishment that made the infraction. A second violation carries a fine of $250; a third violation and subsequent violations would cost $500.
In the original ordinance, which was spearheaded by BYO Greenwich, there was a “retail compensation fee” of 23 cents per recycled paper bag, which was to be applied to customers at the point of sale. If customers brought in their own reusable bags, no fee would be applied.
Proponents of the fee argued it was necessary in order to curb existing behavior and encourage residents to rely solely on reusable bags, since some noted that paper bags still impact the environment. Opponents said it was too punitive and unnecessary and would potentially hinder low-income residents and seniors on fixed-incomes.
Among the most vocal supporters of the ordinance and the fee included a group of over 40 high school and middle school students, who showed up to Monday’s meeting holding signs with slogans written on them such as, “The Future Is Not Plastic,” and “If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When? Pass The RCBO!”
Benjamin Cooper, an eighth-grader at Central Middle School, noted that it takes 400 to 600 years for plastic to degrade, and that he was disheartened by a recent beach cleanup at Greenwich Point which yielded 4,000 pounds of garbage in two hours, most of it plastic. Cooper also advocated for the recycled paper bag fee.
“Although some people might complain about the imposition of a fee, research shows that fees actually do help change behavior. Not only that, but the fee can be completely avoided if people just use reusable bags,” he said.
Scott Mitchell, a business owner in town, said the fee is essential to changing behavior.
“No one is in disagreement that these non-disposable, plastic throw-away bags are terrible,” Mitchell said. “If you’re going to either change the behavior of a retailer, or a consumer, you have to reward or punish. [If you bring the fee] to zero, you’ll see no change.”
Leander Krueger, a representative from District 6, offered a different perspective than others. Around 2008, Krueger moved to London with her young family. She called herself a “responsible, but not a really militant” recycler, and never took her own bags to supermarkets. But in London, everything changed.
“[In London], several large supermarkets in 2008 started charging the equivalent of about seven to 10 cents to provide bags to customers,” she said. “For me, the charge was a constant reminder every time I left the house; I brought some form of bag with me. I got so angry when I got to the store and had to pay 10 cents. It changed me.”
Krueger said that upon returning to Connecticut, she went back to her old habits and stopped bringing bags because of the lack of a fee.
Betsey Frumin, Chair of District 9, urged her fellow RTM members to scrap the fee completely because it would prevent possible confusion and lengthy stops at checkout counters.
“If it doesn’t work, we can always raise it. Let’s try it at zero and see where we go,” she said.
Thomas Agresta, of District 12, argued that educating the community on the matter would be more helpful than imposing a fee. He noted that Westport currently has no fee.
“Why should be put a burden on anybody?” he said. “If we’re going down this road, I am ashamed. Let’s show by example, let’s educate, let’s not be punitive.”
The RTM voted to bump the fee down to 10 cents, before ultimately eliminating it completely by a vote of 116 to 84 with one abstention.
The body also passed a sunset clause, which BYO Greenwich’s Jeanine Behr Getz supported. The clause will revoke the ordinance in three years ,so the town can gauge and reassess how effective it is. The motion passed 113 to 86 with two abstentions.
After nearly three hours of debate centered mostly on the fee, the ordinance was passed in-full and met with loud applause from supporters in the crowd.
Plastic bags in Greenwich are now a thing of the past.
