Foxborough Considers Plastic Bag Ban

FOXBOROUGH, MA — The Board of Selectmen discussed a potential ban on plastic bags at retail stores in town. Town officials are considering a ban after receiving a letter from a high school student and another woman, asking the town to consider the environmental impact of single-use plastic.

Plastic bag bans have passed in dozens of Massachusetts communities including Boston, Mansfield, Sharon and Canton.

Foxborough selectmen met with Mansfield Select Board member Neil Rhein Tuesday night. He discussed how to best implement a ban and how it's affected the town since.

Rhein said Mansfield's ban has been in place for a year-and-a-half, and there haven't been any loss of sales for the town's retail stores since.

"Last I checked, everyone in Mansfield is still buying groceries and surviving," Rhein said.

Rhein, who also founded Keep Mansfield Beautiful, can often be found with volunteers cleaning up areas around towns. Before the ban, he said plastic bags were one of the most common pieces of litter he'd find.

"They're clogging the storm drains and then when they break down, you got the micro-plastic that the fish are eating ... We're probably all eating a good amount of plastic."

Town Manager William Keegan asked if there's been less plastic around town since Mansfield implemented the ban. Rhein said his group is noticing less plastic bags when cleaning up Mansfield. The group recently cleaned up near the Cabot Business Park and collected 75 bags of trash. Rhein said there were very few plastic bags.

Selectman Christopher Mitchell asked if Mansfield had to work with the town's retailers to figure out the best way to implement a ban. Rhein said most towns will have a grace period of six months to a year for stores to comply with the ordinance.

Rhein said other regulations vary from town-to-town. In Mansfield, there's no plastic bags, but stores offer paper bags for free. He said other towns require residents to pay for papers bags though as way to promote using re-usable bags.