Taunton plastic bag ban: City Council debates draft ordinance

TAUNTON — After putting the topic on the backburner for several years, the Taunton City Council has reignited debate over the possibility of restricting or banning single-use plastic bags within city limits.

Councilor Barry Sanders said he first started the conversation in 2018 over the issue of plastic bags at the behest of the DPW Commissioner. By early 2020, a draft ordinance was in front of the Council, Sanders said, but "then COVID happened."

Sanders, the chair of the Council's Committee on Ordinances and Enrolled Bills, said the Ordinance Committee shelved the draft ordinance at that time based on the CDC's recommendations that plastic bags were the safest to use for groceries.

"Now, as we are getting closer to normal, it's an appropriate time to revisit the draft," Sanders said at a meeting of the Ordinance Committee on March 14.

Sanders explained part of the reason for holding this meeting is to give Attorney Thomas P. Gay from the Law Department input on how to refine the draft ordinance, specifically when it comes to issues like: penalties for businesses not complying, whether fees should be instituted for stores offering paper bags and what criteria will be in place for exemptions from the ordinance.

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The movement to ban single-use plastic bags —– i.e. the thin bags offered at grocery stores or for takeout at restaurants —– across the state and nation have expanded greatly over the years, over the environmental, littering, and health consequences attributed to their use and life when discarded.

"They don't degrade in landfills. Recycling companies don't take them because they clog up the machines," said Sanders, adding that single-use plastic bags thrown into the bins for curbside pick-up can downgrade the value of the collection to the point where entire collections of recyclables are deemed too costly to separate and reuse.

"Plastic is now even more problematic and less recycled," Sanders said.

States that have banned single-use plastic bags include New York, California, New Jersey, Washington, Connecticut and Maine. And, according to the Massachusetts Sierra Club, 155 municipalities in the state have either enacted restrictions or adopted full plastic bag bans, including Dartmouth, Bridgewater, Mansfield, Bourne, Attleboro, Boston, Worcester, Newton, Framingham, Cambridge and Seekonk.

Raynham, which is included on this list, adopted a ban of single-use plastic bags through a Town Meeting vote in May 2021, and rejected an appeal of that decision the follow year.

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Council President Kelly Dooner said she supports trying to reduce plastic use, but "I don't like the idea of bans" and wondered if there were any ways the city could incentivize other bagging options.

Councilor Christopher Coute didn't support a ban because "it makes it harder for places to do business." He added that paper bags were an inferior product and the thin plastic bags do have a second life among homeowners who save them for different uses.

Councilor Philip Duarte supported a ban and, in responding to inquiries about partial bans and potential incentives to offer businesses, said, "We are well beyond incentivizing. This has been an issue for too long."

Duarte added that paper bags also have adverse environmental effects and the real goal for the public should be to switch to reusable bags.

Councilor Lawrence Quintal, in support of the ban, reminded the Council that "we had paper back in the day" for bagging at grocery stores, and while it was a pain because it can rip easily, everyone got by.

"Let's get this taken care of. I hope the Committee moves quickly on this," he said.

Several councilors wanted more time to research the potential impacts a plastic bag ban will have on businesses.

"We need to see how this will affect our community. We need to do something. This will help protect the environment. But we need to look into this further," Councilor John McCaul said.

Gay said if the city does move forward with a ban it could give businesses a reasonable amount of time, such as a year, to adapt and go through all their inventory of plastic bags.

McCaul suggested the proposed ban could be a ballot question for a city-wide vote.

But Sanders disagreed, saying anything the council votes on "an argument could be made to throw it to a ballot question," and "it's an ordinance matter. It's in the appropriate committee."

McCaul then suggested the discussion of the plastic bag ordinance be moved to Council as a Whole so that every member could be involved in the decision.

But Councilor Estele Borges said taking it out of the Ordinance Committee was disrespectful to Sanders, who has been working on this for years. Councilor David Pottier agreed with Borges, saying Committee as a Whole is for "issues that cross over multiple committees" or for issues of a high level of importance.

The Committee on Ordinances and Enrolled Bills voted 2-1 to recommend moving the topic to Council as a Whole, with McCaul and Dooner voting yes and Sanders voting no.

But later the full Council voted down the Ordinance Committee's recommendation 5-4, meaning the plastic bag ban will stay with the Ordinance Committee. Councilors Postell, Quintal, Sanders, Pottier and Borges voted down the Committee's recommendation. Dooner, McCaul, Coute and Duarte voted in favor of the committee's recommendation.