Newtown Borough One Vote Away From Regulating Single-Use Plastics

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Newtown Borough Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to advertise a new ordinance for passage in March that would regulate single-use plastics in the borough.

If adopted by council, retail and restaurant establishments would no longer be allowed to provide customers with single-use plastic bags. Instead, they could offer their customers recyclable paper bags or reusable bags for a fee of at least 15 cents. The fee would be retained by the business.

Also under the ordinance, businesses and restaurants would only be allowed to give out single use plastic straws and utensils upon request. In addition, expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food containers would be prohibited.

The new regulations would go into effect 180 days following final adoption, which is scheduled for the March 12 council meeting. The delayed implementation would give the borough time to educate the business community and the business community time to educate its customers and prepare for the change.

At the 90 day mark, businesses would be required to post signage alerting customers to the upcoming change, which is scheduled to take effect in September.

The ordinance is similar to one adopted by Newtown Township in December and scheduled to take effect on April 9 in the township, but with several notable differences.

"Our ordinance would also exempt dry cleaner bags, which the township included in its ordinance," said Councilor Julia Woldorf. "We're also exempting newspaper bags so people don't have to worry about their papers getting wet."

The proposed ordinance also provides an additional 60 days for businesses and restaurants to prepare for the change, said Woldorf, noting that the township provided 120 days while the borough will be extending that to 180 days.

Under the ordinance, Woldorf said businesses experiencing undue hardship complying with the ordinance will be able to apply for an exemption of up to one year to use up its supplies of plastic bags and Styrofoam containers.

"It's a good ordinance and it's for the betterment of the community," said Woldorf.

"This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone," added Councilor Kris Bauman. "The previous council has discussed this at length and it's been in circulation for some time."

The proposed ordinance is scheduled to be posted Wednesday morning on the borough's website.

If adopted, Newtown Borough would be the latest municipality in Bucks County to pass an ordinance banning single-use plastics. In 2023, Doylestown Borough implemented a ban on single-use plastic bags. Solebury Township has also voted to ban single-use plastic bags along
with plastic straws and polystyrene food containers.

Statewide bans are already in place in New York, New Jersey and Delaware. A statewide ban has not been approved by the Pennsylvania legislature. The bans in the Keystone State have instead been concentrated on the municipal level in a concerted attempt to persuade legislators there's support for such a measure statewide.

The effort is being spearheaded by PennEnvironment, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization based in Philadelphia that has drafted a model ordinance to assist municipalities in implementing and spreading the bans.

According to PennEnvironment, every year Pennsylvanians use an estimated 4.75 billion single-use plastic bags. These bags are used for just a few minutes and then thrown “away," but there is no “away” says the organization. Plastic bags and other single-use plastics end up in landfills, incinerators, or in the environment, where they can last for hundreds of years, if not longer,
harming wildlife, waterways, and the public health.

An extensive study conducted by PennEnvironment in 2022 found microplastics in waterways throughout Pennsylvania and in concentrated amounts in fish, wildlife and in humans.

"The evidence is mounting that humans not only ingest microplastics, but that those plastics remain in the body and cause harm," says PennEnvironment. "It’s estimated that on average, humans ingest five grams of plastic every week, roughly equivalent to the weight of a credit card or single-use plastic bag. Microplastics has been found in human blood and even the lungs of living patients.

And although not too much is known about the full scope of health effects of microplastics in humans, plastic, and the chemicals it contains, can cause endocrine disruption, hormonal effects, and reproductive disorders."

Since 2018, PennEnvironment said it has helped more than a dozen Pennsylvania municipalities write, introduce, and pass legislation targeting single-use plastics. These ordinances — from cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to communities like Doylestown and Newtown Township — impact more than 2.4 million Pennsylvanians and could eliminate over 9 million pounds of plastic waste every year, the organization says.

Courtesy: www.patch.com