Pleasantville Board Encourages County to Ban Plastic Bags
By Sarah Bonanno – At its meeting last week, the Pleasantville Village Board voted in support of a resolution that urges the County Board of Legislators to enact legislation that would ban retail use of single-use plastic bags and expanded polystyrene throughout Westchester County.
The legislation, introduced by Catherine Parker (D-Rye) to the County Board of Legislatures, would curtail the use of both plastic bags found in supermarkets and retailers and Styrofoam carryout cups.
According to the legislation, plastic bag use can cause flooding, depletion of natural resources, and a build-up of trash in rivers and oceans. Further, a plastic bag ban would help reduce debris and improve water quality in Westchester County.
The resolution urges communities to vote in favor, citing responsible environmental stewardship for keeping Westchester green. Rather than use single-use plastic bags and polystyrene, the legislation suggests that consumers and retailors use reusable bags, recyclables, and other biodegradable products.
“My personal opinion is that rather than getting too focused on which form of waste is worse, we should get very focused collectively as a community and as a county and indeed as a society on reducing waste in general and in turn using reusable bags is a key way to do that at the consumer level when going to stores,” Pleasantville Mayor Peter Scherer said. “This strikes me as an appropriate gesture.”
Scherer also noted the importance of a countywide ban.
“From my standpoint, the idea of consistent rules throughout the county goes a long way toward resolving…that individual business are not affected in any disproportionate way in comparison to anybody else,” Scherer said.
The resolution passed 4-1 with Pleasantville Trustee Mindy Berard the dissenting vote.
Berard said she was concerned about how the legislation would impact local businesses, as well as the addition of banning polystyrene.
“Our community never had a discussion about that [the polystyrene],” she said.
According to Scherer, Pleasantville business owners feel they can accommodate a plastic-bag ban initiative.
Berard also held issue with a fact sheet delivered to the village board and local businesses by advocates of the ban, citing factual errors. In particular, Berard noted that the fact sheet read, “Recycling isn’t an effective option.”
“I think that’s counterintuitive to our recycling committee and the people in this village that do recycle and it does make an impact and it has been effective and that we can see that through the numbers we get back from the county,” she said. “We don’t use landfills in Westchester County, as you know. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is very supportive of the efforts we’ve taken and they are very pro recycling.”
Advocate and resident Christine Simon-Orgryzlo clarified the fact sheet, stating that unlike glass or aluminum, plastic bags cannot be recycled to create a new commodity.
“I think that the notion plastic bags are endlessly being able to be recycled into something new is just a myth,” she said.
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