Sustainable Wellesley has gone the Change.org petition route to round up more support for a move in town to ban single-use plastic check-out bags. They’re shooting for a modest 200 signatures and were more than three-quarters of the way there when we checked in on Tuesday.
(As one celebrity reader pointed out to us, even people in Belgium and Luxembourg are fired up about this issue, as you can see if you scroll down the comments. Yes, those bags really can travel when a strong wind gets ahold of them.)
Bag banners argue that disposable plastic bags are bad for the environment, and you only need to look around town to see what they’re talking about. Bag supporters, however, argue that most people actually re-use their plastic check-out bags and would just wind up having to buy other plastic bags to replace them.
Sustainable Wellesley says the petition will help to show support for the Wellesley Natural Resources Commission’s proposal for a bylaw to limit distribution of single-use plastic check-out bags (not including produce bags) and to ask Town Meeting Members to vote in favor of such a bylaw at Town Meeting at the end of March. The NRC is holding a public hearing on plastic bag reduction on Feb. 11 at 730pm at Town Hall.
Local grocers allow patrons to recycle bags, though Whole Foods stopped doling out plastic grocery bags back in 2008. As for Roche Bros., a spokesperson says: “As members of the Massachusetts Food Association, we support the organization’s efforts in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to reduce disposable bag use across the commonwealth, and the MFA’s initiative to develop statewide legislation regarding disposable bags that would be fair and equitable for food retailers across all of the commonwealth’s communities.”
The Wellesley RDF has also stopped recycling them (read why here).
