Newtown Environmental Action Team (NEAT) member Lynn Hungaski stopped by FAITH Food Pantry, on CHurch Hill Road, on June 11 to drop off a bin containing reusable grocery bags.

NEAT is making the bins with bags available to the public following a recent plastic shopping bag ban that will take place in Newtown. Other bins are already in place at the Salvation Army Food Bank at Social Services, which is moving this week to its new location on the Fairfield Hills campus; Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street; C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street; Cornerstone at Newtown Congregational Church, 14 West Street; and Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street. When the new community center opens in July, it will also have a bin.

NEAT will continue to monitor the bins on a monthly basis to make sure they each have enough clean bags for the public. The Legislative Council recently voted to support an ordinance that will ban most, if not all, retail use of single-use plastic shopping bags. The ban includes language permitting reusable bags and/or recyclable paper bags, and would require a business to charge a minimum 10-cent user fee per paper bag.

After the plastic bag ban passed, NEAT came up with the reusable bag bins idea, purchased the bins, and created the labels, in an effort to be sure residents who need bags, or wish to donate bags, can do so, Ms Hungaski said.

Helping the cause are a number of businesses that have donated reusable bags to fill the bins, including Big Y, Church Hill Village, Cornerstone Thrift Shop, Senior Lifestyle Corporation, Stop & Shop, the members of NEAT and Newtown residents.

Ms Hungaski has made requests to Caraluzzi’s, TJ Maxx, Sierra Trading, Home Goods, and Aldi, and has plans to approach banks and real estate companies in the near future.