Environment

Plastic bag ban has split support in town hall

Bags2

One large area in the Pacific has an island of plastics caught in the center of it that is twice the size of Texas, Mr. Von Lehsten said.

He said both plastic bags and paper bags should be banned and replaced with reusable bags.

Councilman George Gabrielsen said that studies from several universities have found that eight percent of the reusable bags that were randomly sampled had e-coli bacteria in them, because people don’t wash them after carrying things like meat products in them.


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He and Mr. Walter also said that plastic bags are being reused as well. Mr. Gabrielsen said plastic produce bags are used extensively by farm stands, and Mr. Walter said he reuses plastic shopping bags to line his garbage at home.

The produce bags are not included in the ban proposed by Southampton Town, nor are large trash bags.

“I absolutely find this a global issue that goes far beyond us,” Mr. Wooten said. “Something of this global magnitude, isn’t this something the federal government should be looking at as well?”

“It’s a bottom-up movement,” said Mr. Von Lehsten, who grew up in Europe and Australia and is a retired managing and marketing consultant.

In California — which recently banned plastic shopping bags statewide, the movement started at the town level — where 97 municipalities pressured the state to enact the ban. Trying to start at the state or federal level won’t work, he said.

Globally, there 78 countries that have banned plastic shopping bags, he added. In New York State, the City of Rye, the Town of Mamaroneck and the Village of Larchmont have banned plastic shopping bans and have not been sued, he said, and now the City of New York is considering it.

“If you want to make this a regional ban, then the municipalities have to come together with an inter-municipal agreement where we’re all going to contribute to a defense fund,” Mr. Walter said. If Mr. Von Lehsten could deliver that, the supervisor said he would vote for a public hearing on the plastic bag ban, although he made no commitments to actually support the ban.

The towns would pay proportion to population, and if no one gets sued by the time the statue of limitations, by which a lawsuit could be filed, expires, the money would be given back.

“It’s an interesting proposition,” Mr. Von Lehsten said.

Mr. Walter said the town needs to have a legal analysis from the town attorney’s office before it can hold a hearing.

The Southampton Town Board on Tuesday is scheduled to vote to schedule a Nov. 25 public hearing on a proposal to bag single use plastic shopping bags from being used for “retail checkout bags,” which it defines as a “carryout bag that is provided to a customer at the point of sale.”

The term “checkout bag” does not include plastic produce bags or plastic bags measuring 28 inches by 36 inches or larger in size, which are the largest garbage bags, the proposal states.