Tempers flared at Southold Town Hall last night as residents renewed a plea to elected officials to consider a single-use plastic bag ban.
Dave Markel, who has collected more than 1,000 signatures from town residents who are in favor of the ban, began by stating again that other towns on the East End, including Southampton, have adopted legislation banning the plastic bags. He asked why Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell would not discuss the ban.
Russell corrected Markel, stating that he has said that he would not support a local law at the present time but is always willing to hold discussions on the issue. He said once the ban is instituted in Riverhead, he’ll be the first to support a similar ban in Southold.
“It’s called leadership,” Markel said. “You can’t learn from behind, you follow from behind. This town wants to follow. I want you to be leaders.”
Councilman Bob Ghosio said, “I wouldn’t characterize it that way. Don’t cast aspersions.”
Markel handed the board another 175 signatures and read a long list of local business owners who said they’d support the single use plastic bag ban.
He asked members of the board if they’d be willing to draft legislation. Ghosio said something could potentially be drafted and sent to the code committee for review.
Greenport’s Margaret DeCruz, who has also gathered signatures, said most of those she spoke to supported the ban.
“This is an easy way to reduce plastic in the world that’s destroying animals and bad or our oceans and bodies. We need to stop using it willy nilly,” she said.
Russell said his concern was not that residents would start flocking to Riverhead to shop if a ban was enacted in Southold. Instead, he said, the issue centered on layering an additional cost to local merchants who are already trying to compete with big box stores further west.
“I don’t think that’s fair,” he said. “Candidates are now championing [the ban] who were opposed” in the past, Russell said.
Damon Rallis, the Democratic challenger for the supervisor’s seat in the upcoming election, responded today by email.
“I have always supported a plastic bag ban and my family and I have been utilizing reusable bags for years. When I was approached by a local advocate, months ago, and asked to take a public position on the ban I refused to do so, not because I’m against a bag ban, but because I have no faith in the current administration to properly enforce its own laws. This administration has a history of creating ‘feel good’ laws to appease the public and then failing to follow through on its promises. This is evidenced in our noise ordinance and our dark skies legislation. I have no reason to believe that a plastic bag ban or even the new transient rental law will be handled any differently under the current system,” he said.”In addition to ensuring that our laws are clear and that they are enforced evenly and fairly, if elected, I will direct town hall staff to draft legislation for a plastic bag ban, bring it to public hearing and ultimately to a vote. At the end of the day, that’s all the public is asking for.”
Russell responded to Rallis’ comments by email to SoutholdLOCAL: “Actually my opponent had opposed the ban previously stating it was unenforceable and that the town should focus of enforcing current laws, not adding new ones. I hope is positions on other issues aren’t as malleable as this one.”
He added, “Suffolk County has a Democratic County Executive and a Legislature in Democratic majority. Yet, to date, he has made no request for the county to consider a ban. I am glad he has finally decided to become part of the discussion. He has neither attended the forum nor attended any board meetings to let his position be known.”
The supervisor said last night that he’d like to take the issue to Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and the legislature, so that a ban might be imposed countywide, leveling the playing field. He added that when he spoke to the Southold/Greenport Chamber of Commerce about the ban, members were not in support of the ban.
He added that residents or businesses that wanted to take a stand could begin using reusable bags on their own.
Linda Goldsmith of East Marion, who is running for town assessor on the Democratic ticket in the next election, said while campaigning outside the Southold IGA she did “an informal survey and one out of every five shoppers was carrying a reusable bag.”
Southold IGA gave a free bag to customers who’d spent $20 or more during a pilot program last year.
She suggested charging shoppers in the first few months for a paper bag, so that way, the charge was not being passed on to the store, and said eventually, people would begin to bring their own reusable bags.
Russell said local businesses would have to buy paper or biodegradable bags that cost up to nine times more. “It’s the cost of operation,” he said. “They are already having a hard time competing with corporate giants. This is layering in another cost.”
Goldsmith suggested the town try the ban and if it didn’t work, the plastic bags could be brought back; she suggested a phase-in approach.
Russell said he liked the phase-in idea.
Councilman Jim Dinizio said he did not see any reason to mandate the ban. “There are people who cannot afford to wash those bags, who cannot afford a quarter or fifty cents. You stand in front of the IGA in Greenport and you will know who they are.”
Canvas bags, he said, “are unsanitary. You put chicken in and you don’t wash it and a few weeks later, you’ve got poison. There are people who can’t afford to go to the laundromat,” he said.
Dinizio agreed the county should take the lead on the ban. “We don’t have the enforcement mechanism. We can’t even afford to stop people from renting their houses out as hotels. Now we’re going to tell the poor woman with plastic bags, who’s going to push that cart home, that she has to buy a new bag and wash it every week?”
Plastic bags, Dinizio said, are “here for a reason. They are convenient to use. You can carry three in each hand,” and bring in all the groceries in one trip, as opposed to brown paper bags, which weigh up to seven times more, take more space to store at supermarkets, and require more fuel in trucks to deliver. “There’s a lot more to this than saying, ‘Let’s ban plastic bags.'” He also asked why other plastic wrap and sandwich storage bags weren’t included in the ban.
“I just want there to be a level playing field,” he said. “You have to make a decision you can enforce. We are simply not going to be able to enforce” the ban, he said, adding that he could not envision sending officials around to check that the ban was being upheld.
Dinizio also agreed residents could make the decision to buy reusable bags on their own and said Southold has always been forward-thinking in recycling.
Goldsmith said you can clean the bags with a cloth and water. She said she picks up plastic bags filled with trash and other things on the beach. “You don’t want the responsibility,” she said.
“It has nothing to do with responsibility. It has to do with being able to do what we say we will do,” Dinizio said.
DeCruz said she uses plastic bags, but reuses the ones she already has. Chicken, she said, comes wrapped. She said she’d appreciate if the board did more reading on the issue.
“Let’s keep it an even playing field,” Dinizio said. “People have to eat and the least amount of money they have to spend,” the better, he said.
“I don’t think this will stop anyone from eating,” DeCruz said.
The debate began at a previous town board meeting earlier this month.
