To the Editor:

I recently attended the meeting of the Legislative Council at which the plastic bag ordinance was discussed. I have the following comments.

Much time and confusion could have been prevented if it had been made clear at the beginning of the meeting what the proposal entailed and the reasons for any proposed changes.

After listening to discussion by Council members, it became apparent that some wanted to eliminate Newtown’s plastic bag ordinance and depend solely on the subsequent state plastic bag ban, the major difference being that the state ban does not contain a charge for paper bags. It also does not cover events like the Farmers Market and food trucks.

Since Newtown’s ban has been working extremely well and is broader in scope, what were the reasons for wanting to make this change?

Arguments for deferring to the state ban included reluctance to tell merchants how much to charge for a product. But since the merchant gets to keep the 10 cent charge for a bag, the bag is really not a “product”, and the money collected acts as a pass-through. The other argument had to do with enforcement, which seemed like a non-issue to me.

No merchant attended the meeting and complained that bags were being taken without payment or that Newtown’s ban is a hardship for them for any reason.

Since the state legislation clearly states that a town has the right to enact a stronger plastic bag ban, one wonders why this proposal was brought forward. Why would we give up our freedom to act at the local level when it clearly was spelled out that we have that choice?

I think it was unfortunate that the Council (narrowly) voted to abandon Newtown’s fine plastic bag ban in favor the state ban.

Mary Gaudet-Wilson

Newtown