Harwich Joins Massachusetts Towns in Banning Single Use Plastic Bags

Harwich is the latest of the Massachusetts towns to impose a plastic bag ban to reduce the pollution and negative impact on the environment. But an industry insider says the solution is much easier than people think.

Harwich, MA, United States – June 14, 2016 /PressCable/ —

Effective June 15, Harwich will join a rapidly growing number of cities and towns in Massachusetts to ban local businesses from handing out single-use plastic bags to customers. The ban wasn’t scheduled to go into effect until July 1, but selectmen in Harwich voted to move up the date. For now, the ban requires that plastic bags be phased out over the next year, and that applies to any retail establishment doing business in the town. But by August 2018, businesses across the state that have a minimum of three stores in the state, or have over 3,000 square feet, will be required to stop handing out the bags.

“We think this is an obnoxious form of trash we can do without,” said Petitioner Bob Hartwell. And Amy Usowski, Harwich’s conservation agent agrees. “This is a controllable thing we can vote for,” she said. But some selectmen were cautious about imposing more rules on the citizenry. Larry Ballantine, who is chairman of the board, said it was just another regulation and he feels like it should voluntary instead of mandatory. And selectman Peter Hughes said he feared it would add to the police’s enforcement burden.

“There is always a great debate when it comes to whether or not cities should ban plastic bags,” said an industry insider. “But the solution is amazingly simple. If people carried reusable shopping bags, this wouldn’t even be a necessary conversation.”

And the facts point to his argument. It’s estimated that the average American family takes home 1,500 plastic bags a year, and every year more than 100 billion plastic shopping bags are thrown away. Must of those bags end up in the ocean, where they kill unsuspecting marine life that mistakes them for food, or in landfills, where they don’t biodegrade. “If this current environmental disaster could be eradicated by simply educating people so that they begin to carry a reusable shopping bag, it would do wonders for our planet.”

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