I believe it is a rare town that stands up and goes through discomfort for the benefit of doing something proactive and strong. Not easy but brave.

I can see both sides, but tend to lean towards the ban, as it is usually through drastic change that any change occurs. Most communities have been recycling for close to twenty years (I lived in Boston 20 years ago and was separating my recyclables even then), and yet the rate of recycling is still under 20 percent. That's inexcusable. On Martha's Vineyard, where space is at a premium (as it should be here in our tiny state), recycling has really caught on, in large part because the towns charge for trash: recycling is free. The most efficacious way to effect change begins monetarily. In lieu of that, banning plastic will force people to make different, and we hope, better environmental choices. We can change, and we can change for the better.

I appreciate the cause here, however as a small business owner in town I very concerned about the financial
impact on local businesses. Does the town plan to support businesses as we take on the full burden of this change? This increase in operating costs for local businesses is ultimately a new tax that we can not afford right now. I wonder will the town take any financial responsibility for this?

I am totally for the ban on plastic. I work at a business that is located in the Barrington Center. Residents on the fence should come take a look behind our building. A stiff breeze runs through the center sending all kinds of debris into the woods. Most noticeable are the plastic bags. Some are on the ground and others are hanging like kites from the trees. The ban wouldn't clear up everything back there but having the plastic bags gone would be a help.

In case anyone has lost sight of the financial environment here in RI, there is another story on the Patch outlining how far in the financial hole we are in:

http://barrington.patch.com/articles/economic-turn-around-takes-time

Many residents have cut back on discretionary spending driving many local businesses into survival mode.

The high profit items are being sold less and that makes staying in business harder.

There will be an impact on foot traffic because of this ban.

I like shopping at Shaws, but I also like to keep a handy supply of those plastic handled bags in the closet. This means I will cut back on my trips to Shaws (along with a lot of the so-called proponents) to replenish my bag supply.

That loss in foot traffic can make the difference in staying in business. Let's be honest, the council has their cross hairs set on Shaws.

The council members pushing this idea (Speakman and Weymouth) will not be financially impacted themselves from the outcome.

Common sense seems to be lacking.

I see it as yet more government control of the people in making their own choices and interfering in private business yet again.

These bags are great for many other uses, besides just to carry groceries from the store. Poop patrol being the best example. However they are great for small trash cans around the house, light yard pickup when weeding, not everyone can haul the big bag around. I find them great when transplanting around the yard rather than carry by hand.

Picking up dead animals and such that your animal has brought as a favor to you in the house when you wake up in the morning, make it safer for you to dispose of disease wise. Lets not forget the blow them up and pop them just for fun or to scare the heck out of wife. Stay at least 3 feet away to avoid the slap and wear ear protection for the screaming.

This is typical of the government creating feel good regulation that honest people follow, whether it is there or not. Dishonest people who care for nothing will still throw them everywhere when they drive through the various towns. Yesterday I counted 3 large lawn plastic bags along Metacom, and 1 large futon mattress, I see this all the time all over the state. We still have I believe only 20% of the people recycling in the State and it appears to have stagnated at that number.

I do not know the whole answer, but bans rarely if ever work.

Plastic ban initiative seems disingenuous given the lack of real conservation efforts.

For instance:

Air conditioned town offices; including DPW.

Town water sprinklers operating, even when raining.

DPW Trucks driving routes to pick up that one bag of neighbors yard waste.

Lack of town initiative to educate on benefits of mulching / composting lawn clippings.

Chemicals on town grass.

Lack of enforcement of dog-waste rules could use some attention.

Please vote-out June and Kate.

Here’s the choice this ban is really about:

Lightweight plastic shopping bags or heavy Hefty-type plastic.

Lightweight plastic bags are infinitely preferable to the heavy Hefty plastic.

Lightweight plastic carries the groceries, and then is recycled and/or is reused for trash & poop pickup (paper poop-picker-upper appears to be a predominantly unpopular & unpleasant poop proposition).

And it’s not just Shaws that Kate & June are considering financially impacting now.
Oh no. It’s time to be fair to the rest of the retailers.

Contrary to what Kate Weymouth says, recycling DOES work in Barrington. Folks have done an amazing & conscientious job of recycling. Contrary to what Kate Weymouth says, the traffic on Route 6 flows along nicely - contrary to that on the Route 114 parking lot.

Seekonk has lower prices and lower taxes. And free, lightweight plastic bags.
If Barrington enacts the ban, a planned, trip or two a week to Seekonk is a very efficient and money-saving way to go: get the gas, go to the gym, get the groceries (in the free trash bags), a little wine, a little beer, over to the Home Depot or Lowe’s, TJ Maxx, Home Goods (let’s be honest), pick up some take-out, Walmart for the rest, etc, etc, etc.

Totally eliminates any need to shop in Barrington.

Cheap? In this economy? You bet.

If the pro-ban folks can honestly explain to us exactly how they manage their trash without using any plastic, then maybe we’ll reconsider.

Susan thanks, but you missed my point.

The point being that the items on my list SHOULD BE DONE first, and they don’t require some big self-serving political hoopla.

Given that the obvious conservation items on my list have not been pursued over the long June / Kate era, it seems that the plastic bag ban initiative is disingenuous, given the lack of real / basic / ongoing conservation efforts.

For instance:

Air conditioned town offices; including DPW.

Town water sprinklers operating, even when raining.

DPW Trucks driving routes to pick up that one bag of neighbors yard waste.

Lack of town initiative to educate on benefits of mulching / composting lawn clippings.

Chemicals on town grass.

Lack of enforcement of dog-waste rules could use some attention.

Please vote-out June and Kate.

Something else to consider on this. The town web sites could link to this. You will be surprised at what you can do with these bags.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3Bedymh&gs_nf=1&cp=5&gs_id=e&xhr=t&q=plarn&pf=p&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&oq=plarn&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=39ecb6b45886a9c8&biw=1271&bih=616

There is also a story on the Barrington patch concerning crafts with these.

http://barrington.patch.com/blog_posts/what-to-do-with-plastic-bags-make-something

There are many ways for people to do things with out the government, by taking self responsibilty and using a little ingenuity, especially working with your hands and teching your children that not all things are trash. This to me is the way to go, rather than teaching your children that when there is a problem no matter hw small the government is the answer. It is not and never has been. Look up the regulation for cleaning, I think it was a cabbage, talk about waste. The thing was 100's of pages if I remember right. It also cost us 100's of thousands of dollars just to come up with it.

This is what has added up to the trillions of waste in the governemnt over the decades, it would be laughable if it was not true.

I hear that Manifold; These things always seem to pop up at election time or the end of the year, to deflect from the real issue that politicians should be addressing. It also deflects from budget issues and waste the peoples time. Remember the tanning bed debate in the State house at the end session of the budget? Smoke and mirrors in RI's best tradition of political curruption.

Weichert Realtors,Tirrell Realty is giving away reusable Shopping bags.Just stop by are office at the Riverside Plaza shopping center.

Frankly ..you need to find better incentives for people to recycle plactic anything ... Cloth bags are great as long as they are sanitized and affordable .. Paper? We are losing to many trees as it is.. What are the cost envoronmently and cost wish on that...your reasoning on banning plastic shopping bags for environment purposes is a lame one considering all the other issues we face ..

Jump in there for free publicity, eh, Phil?

What’s that you say now?

We go to a Riverside Realtor to get "reusable shopping bags" (with or without advertising?) and then go back to Barrington to shop?

Or do we shop in Riverside?

And we add "Hefty heavyweight plastic-like-steel bags" to our shopping list.

Got it.

We’ll get right on that.

Riverside also has the high RI taxes.

Seekonk it is.

Free plastic bags, lower prices, lower taxes…

Fact: Due to the success of Barrington’s recycling program, Barrington has one of the highest trash diversion rates in the state – about 50%. (The statewide average? 32.8%.)

That’s an overall trash diversion rate of which Barrington is usually very proud.

No wonder the “pro-banners” refuse to mention this statistic.

So, what do pro-banners cite? They have to resort to a national statistic. Because virtually ALL of RI is doing much better than the national rates!

So why not celebrate RI's success with recycling?

Especially right now, RI could use a little celebration of something we do well.

Because it doesn't suit the pro-banners personal desires.

So Pro-banners cite NATIONAL rates of "11 to 14 percent range".

Pro-banners make wild allegations of rivers being “slogged” by “sludge” caused by plastic shopping bags.

Pro-banners should at least be honest enough to present true Barrington recycling statistics & to honestly evaluate the condition of Barrington rivers as they relate to plastic shopping bags.

Probably the most disturbing thing of all?

Two Barrington Town Councilors (Kate Weymouth & RWU Professor June Speakman) are ignoring the Barrington statistics in favor of much-less favorable national statistics.

This is appallingly disingenuous.

Or maybe they really just don’t know any better.

Either way, this is not the kind of “leadership” Barrington needs.

Banning plastic bags will hurt businesses. People need to be encouraged to use reusable bags NOT punished like wayward children. 5 cents off for each reuseable bag the customer brings into the store, that's what Stop & Shop does. Stop treating people like children.

Has anyone ever attempted to study why and how these plastic bags are getting into the environment? Has anyone spent time in Shaw’s parking lot or any shopping center to survey how many plastic bags suddenly escape from their owners and flee into the wild? They sure as heck aren’t coming to Barrington or Bristol County from the Johnston Land Fill. Could it be because too many people have become void of any self responsibility? Like those individuals that toss trash out the window of there car and justify it by saying “it gives someone a job”. So it isn’t the fault of any human being, it’s the plastic bags fault, so let’s ban those bad objects. No, it is not that inanimate object that is the problem, it is that growing number of lazy, “let the other guy do it” slobs, who have no sense of community pride and are turning us into looking like a third world country. Guess what; try bending over just once and picking up that bag that may be next to you in the parking lot even if it wasn’t yours.
Hey folks, it is about the people that cause this, not the objects.
P.S. Don’t bother commenting to tell me I’m being judgmental, because yes I am

This is less about banning plastic bags and more about government telling us what to do. No one wants to hurt the environment. Let the market decide what people want to use and let businesses (both big and small) run their business instead of jamming yet another ordinance down their throats.

Socialism has arrived in Barrington.

As of today, Aug 28, the proponents of this plastic bag ban could only muster 5 people who have enough interest in their local government to vote in this poll (it's likely they will make a voting push after my post)

This is clearly a very small minority in town who want to force behavior on the rest of us.

The town council proponents being Council President Speakman and Councilor Weymouth should consider that they are forcing their own personal views on the town residents in this matter, not representing the general interests of all residents.

This is no different than their personal opinions that residents should be forced to provide property tax subsidies for affordable housing that we don't have to because it is their own personal view that we should do this.

What happened to our government here in Barrington?

I know this is obnoxious! But I really do want to recycle. BUT, I don't want to be told by the government that I MUST!! So... I will not use cloth bags till this issue is resolved. And I will shop in Riverside or Seekonk should this ordinance passed!!

wow. had no idea there would be such a vehement reaction! I am shocked... BUT it's clear that people have very righteous feelings about the issue. What about a compromise? Have people pay for the bags if they need to use them. That's a reasonable suggestion. 10 cents a bag. I paid a whopping 1$ for each cloth bag, (never ever ONCE considered the need to sanitize, good lord, what did they do before plastic?) Let's all yield a bit and see what we can come up with. Being sarcastic or nasty just polarizes us rather than solving the issues.

There's nothing to compromise on, susancatherine - we already pay for the bags. This wasn’t an issue of increasing vendor revenue. Unless that’s what it WAS really about & no one told us?

Or are you advocating for a "compromise" in the way of a new tax (like sales tax) that vendors have to track and remit to the government?

And then the money will supposedly be used for what? The clean-up of the allegedly sludge-clogged rivers in Barrington where, as you also allege, the rivers are slogged with sludge that is made up solely of plastic shopping bags from Barrington stores?

You've really got to tell us where those rivers are, susancatherine.

This is a very interesting read on this issue and why banning is not successful and may do more harm then good. Though; I am against these types of bans due to government intrusion yet again on freedom of choice. This PDF may change minds or at least open some eyes on why this is nothing more than a feel good idea by politicians. Notice links and citations at the end of the PDF from the EPA where they got the information.

I checked the file with Kaspersky, Eset, and various Malware programs and it is a safe download.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=myths%20and%20facts%20on%20plastic%20bag&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plasticsindustry.org%2Ffiles%2Fabout%2Ffbf%2Fmyths%252Bfacts_grocerybags.pdf&ei=7W5BUPeZB-LA6AG_9oCABg&usg=AFQjCNFgdEZMt31g0ASIBv0fxPvb7l2aPA

I would like to see fewer plastic bags, but do not support a ban. Some stores offer a credit for bringing your own bags,CVS gives CVS bucks for not using plastic bags. Also, the super box stores Costco,bj,s do not use bags, and this does not seem to impact their business. Change is always tough, but giving options might be a more positive way to go.

Because everyone is so divided, it sounds like that is a good idea-I agree, change is tough but options allow everyone a chance to find a middle ground. Thanks for the positive views lately rather than the sarcasm. It goes a long way.

http://www.plasticbagrecycling.org/02.0/
there are lots of options- research is the best way to go-
being eco friendly is the future- figuring out how to do that is where we are.