The contentious single use plastic bag ban issue continued to spark heated debate this week as the public spoke out at Tuesday’s Southold town board meeting.
Resident David Markel, who has collected more than 1,000 signatures from residents advocating for a ban on single use plastic bags, stepped up to the podium again Tuesday and said he’d asked managers of local 7-Elevens and said he’d gotten a positive response.
He asked how long of Freedom of Information Law request would take; he’d like to know how many pieces of correspondence the town has received on the plastic bag ban issue.
Town Attorney Bill Duffy said he would work with Markel to learn that number.
Markel asked the board if they’d seen the correspondence.
“You don’t care,” he said.
“It’s not a matter of not caring,” Councilman Jim Dinizio said.
Referencing discussion at a prior meeting, Markel said, “For you, it’s question of a little old lady in Greenport with a canvas bag who’s too poor to wash her bag, so she’ll put chicken in the bag and have it become infected with salmonella.”
“You are exactly right,” Dinizio said, adding that cross contamination is a critical concern.
Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said “from day one,” he’s said he believes a countywide single use plastic bag ban is most fair, but if “we could get Riverhead on board,” it would neutralize the playing field.
The problem is not shoppers going to Riverhead, where plastic bags might still be used, Russell said, correcting a myth; instead, the issue is local businesses shouldering additional costs when they are already operating under a narrow profit margin and trying to compete against corporate giants.
“Have you talked to the Suffolk County Legislator?” he asked Markel.
Markel said Legislator Al Krupski would “like to work on” a ban.
Russell then asked if Markel had brought the matter to the attention of Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone.
Markel went on to say that both East Hampton and Southampton have embraced plastic ban bans with no issues.
He added that he’s garnered additional signatures on petitions. He told Russell that after last year’s first public meeting to discuss the potential ban, the supervisor said he wanted to reach out to the business community.
Later, Markel, who said he wanted answers, commenced his own canvassing of the “business community and found them very receptive. You have the public in favor of a ban. You’ve got businesses in favor…but the monolithic town board, when asked if anyone is in favor of this, you were all mute.”
Councilman Bob Ghosio said he had reviewed all the petitions as promised, and “noticed that a number of those businesses weren’t retail,” but instead, real estate and other businesses. “I’d like to see, if you’re out doing this, and I appreciate that you are, more of the retail businesses, that would use the bags or not. I think that would be important.”
While gathering the petitions, Markel said that he does not “discriminate,” he just goes from one shop to the next.
Ghosio said he just returned from Texas and in his travels, noted that cities had different approaches to the plastic bag issue.
“You keep putting the hurdle up higher and higher for me,” Markel said. “I keep getting the same negative response from the board. It’s a little bit disheartening.”
On the contrary, Ghosio said he was not negative and in many ways, “would probably support the plastic bag ban” but just wanted more information from retail business owners.
Markel wanted to know how many signatures “are going to be enough?”
When considering new legislation, Councilwoman Jill Doherty said it’s important to look at the whole picture, and not just make decisions “willy nilly”; rushing, she said, can sometimes cause more harm than good.
Markel suggested the board contact East Hampton and Southampton to ask about how they handle enforcement.
Dinizio further explained his stance and said plastic bags were introduced originally with an eye toward preventing cross-contamination. Some individuals with canvas bags might bring them home, leave them unwashed, in places there might be bed bugs and roaches, and where cats could urinate on them and dogs might sleep on them.
“Then they lay it on the vegetables we all see in the supermarket and they start loading it up with tomatoes. Now we have cross-contamination from their house back into the grocery store,” he said.
Research indicates that canvas bags can be cross-contamination culprits, he said. “They’re cloth; bacteria grows very easily,” he said. “It’s a real concern. I want to know how that issue of potential cross-contamination is going to be solved.”
The county, Dinizio agreed, has the right people in place to handle the concerns.
Robert Harper of Mattituck said he’s used his canvas bags for years and washes them. He also asked what would prevent a plastic bag from having roaches.
Plastic bags are meant for single use, Dinizio said.
