New Castle Proposes Local Ordinance to Eliminate Plastic Bag Use

New Castle officials are proposing a local ordinance that would eliminate single-use plastic bags in all stores in town and encourage patrons to bring reusable shopping bags.

The proposed legislation, referred to as the Reusable Bag Initiative and recommended by the town’s Sustainable Advisory Board (SAB), would also call for certain stores, such as groceries and food markets, pharmacies and convenience stores, to charge customers a 10-cent fee for each paper bag used to carry out purchased merchandise.

SAB Chairman Steven Wolk and board member Jennifer Mebes Flagg said that if approved the measure would make New Castle the fifth municipality in the county and just the ninth in the state to enact a bag law. Most importantly, it would make the town cleaner and help protect the environment, they said.

“Plastic bags are a very significant litter problem. You see them polluting our streets, our waterways, getting stuck up in trees,” Flagg said. “They also endanger wildlife – birds, turtles get entangled with this, they eat them, causes them to die. It’s very harmful to wildlife.”

A public hearing on the proposed law is expected to take place on Tuesday, May 24. The New Castle Town Board will formally set the hearing at its May 10 meeting.

The ordinance would still allow plastic bags to be used for meat and produce, dry cleaners and newspapers. Prescription drug and greeting card bags would also remain in use.

Merchants, particularly establishments that sell food, would be encouraged to carry and sell reusable bags.

The 10-cent charge for a paper bag, which would be kept by the merchants, would not apply to restaurants, delis or liquor stores, Wolk said. Stores that provide decorative paper bags, such as jewelers and gift shops, could also continue to give those bags away without a charge.

Flagg said the SAB also wants to discourage use of paper bags prompting the advisory board to recommend the 10-cent charge. While paper can be recycled, it uses many more resources to create than even plastic bags, she said.

Wolk said that there has been strong community support for the initiative. More than 400 adults and 450 students signed a petition endorsing the proposal.
More than 20 town merchants wrote letters of support, he said.

“What we’re doing here is saying there should be this law, there should be personal responsibility,” Wolk said. “If a person is going to use a bag, yes, it’s going to cost you something. It’s just a matter of people taking personal responsibility.”

Town board members at last Tuesday’s work session were receptive to the proposal, although questions were raised about easing merchants and shoppers into the change and ensuring a period of public education.

Councilwoman Hala Makowska said it would be difficult to go “cold turkey,” especially when some stores, particularly chains, routinely use multiple bags for each customer.

“I think there definitely needs to be more of a transition, more than what we have in the proposal and I do think we need more education,” she said.

Flagg said the SAB understands that the town will have to create greater awareness in the community should the legislation be approved.

“We’ll work with (merchants) to help them get the message out, what is the best way to do it,” she said.

There has also been some concern in Millwood that an ordinance could discourage some potential supermarket operators from filling the empty space formerly occupied by the defunct A&P supermarket, Makowska said.

But Supervisor Robert Greenstein said if the public supports the law any implementation shouldn’t be delayed because of fear that a potential supermarket operator would be scared off. He said businesses that use a high volume of bags would likely save money if they no longer had to provide them.

“The truth is they should know what they’re getting into,” Greenstein said. “(If) we’re going to have a plastic bag (law) and if you’re coming here, you’re going to save money on the plastic bags and move into a nice, environmentally-minded community.”

Chains such as Walgreens, which operates in town, and Whole Foods that will be coming to Chappaqua Crossing next year, have experience with bag laws in other states, Wolk said. Municipalities in 20 states have ordinances on the books.

Other Westchester municipalities that have approved bag laws are Mamaroneck, Rye, Larchmont and Hastings-on-Hudson. There are three Long Island communities that have laws on the books as well as New Paltz.