Plastic bag bylaw set to take effect next month

A movement toward a cleaner and more environmentally conscious Canton will get a jumpstart on March 11 when the town’s new plastic shopping bag reduction bylaw takes effect for large retailers.

Beginning on this date, retail establishments with at least 3,500 square feet of floor area (either in a single location or combined across multiple locations) will no longer be permitted to offer single-use, thin-film plastic bags at checkout. Acceptable alternative options will include 100 percent recyclable paper bags, compostable or marine-degradable plastic bags, or reusable checkout bags.

Under the new bylaw, paper bags given at checkout must be made from 100 percent recycled material.

All smaller retail establishments in Canton — those with less than 3,500 square feet of floor area — will have an additional six months (until September 11, 2020) to comply with the bylaw, at which point the same restrictions will apply. The Board of Health, which has been charged with enforcing the new regulations, can grant a single six-month extension for compliance if the law causes undue hardship to a business, or if a business needs more time to draw down its inventory of plastic bags.

Initiated by citizen petition with the backing of local nonprofit group Sustainable Canton, the new bylaw received widespread support at last year’s annual town meeting and was subsequently approved by the attorney general’s office on September 11, 2019.

With the approval, Canton now joins a long and growing list of Massachusetts municipalities that have enacted a local plastic bag ban. That list, according to the Massachusetts Sierra Club, is now at 138 cities and towns, representing over 58 percent of the state’s population. Across the country, eight U.S. states have passed legislation banning single-use plastic bags, with three such laws currently in effect and more set to take effect as soon as next month. The Massachusetts Senate recently approved its own statewide ban and the proposal will now move to the House of Representatives for consideration.

In the meantime, Canton will look to do its part in reducing the amount of plastic that makes its way into the local environment.

According to bylaw sponsor Christine Smith, the ultimate goal with this new legislation is to get consumers thinking about the amount of plastic they use and to encourage reusable options whenever possible.

While recognizing that many residents already re-use the thin-film bags for various household purposes, Smith noted that even with the bylaw, there is still a lot of plastic coming into people’s homes that can serve as a substitute for the traditional checkout bags.

“The bag that your bread comes in or your bagels, or the bag that your newspaper comes in — all of those bags can be reused for the same purposes,” she said. “And if someone really has a need to use [plastic] bags, while I don’t personally think this is the solution, they are not illegal and you can still buy them.”

Smith added that their intent with the bylaw was not to be “heavy handed” with merchants, but rather to work with store owners to help them understand the new requirements.

And recognizing that the Board of Health has limited staffing and financial resources, the members of Sustainable Canton have also agreed to help with the implementation efforts, drafting a notification letter and personally visiting many of the merchants to discuss the bylaw changes.

“We really did everything we could to be of assistance [to the BOH],” said Sustainable Canton President Jen Wexler. “We put together a brochure for residents about shopping in Canton and going green. We put together a one-page flyer of typical questions that businesses or others might have about the bylaw. We helped the Board of Health put together a list of over 120 merchants that this would apply to, and then we fanned out in pairs and we visited many of the merchants on the list.”

What they found, said Wexler, was a significant amount of buy-in on the part of merchants, with a number of retailers already having made the switch from single-use plastic to recycled paper or reusable bags. Wexler said some of the merchants expressed excitement about the reduction efforts while others, including Shaw’s Supermarket at Cobb’s Corner, offered to help in other ways, notably through sponsorship of the inaugural Canton GreenFest held this fall at CHS.

Wexler said they have also received great support from many non-retailers — everyone from Canton town officials to companies such as Bank of Canton, which also sponsored GreenFest and distributed reusable bags in the run-up to the town meeting vote.

As for plans to enforce the new bylaw, both Wexler and Smith envision it as a collaborative effort between the Board of Health and local citizens.

“When the board is doing inspections on other things [such as food safety or tobacco compliance], they will be cognizant of this issue; this is on their punch list,” said Wexler. “Also, as residents, if we see something awry then we will notify the Board of Health.”

Under the provisions of the bylaw, penalties for noncompliance start with a written warning, followed by a $100 fine for a first offense, $200 fine for a second offense, and $300 fine for a third and all subsequent offenses. Each day of noncompliance constitutes a separate violation, and retailers will have 15 calendar days to pay the penalty.

For the most part, Wexler said reactions to the bylaw from merchants have been “overwhelmingly favorable,” and she continues to believe that people “want to do the right thing” if given the proper tools and guidance.

“Part of the beauty of this bylaw,” she said, “is that it provides this opportunity for residents, businesses, and the town to work together to help us become a more sustainable, equitable community. And that collaboration between those three pieces is kind of the spirit that we’re trying to encourage through this bylaw and through our work with Sustainable Canton.”

To learn more about Canton’s plastic bag reduction bylaw, visit www.sustainablecanton.com. Additional information will also be posted on the town website.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Feb 29 2020. Filed under News, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.