Newton Unanimously Bans Plastic Bags

Photo via Lou’s Upcycles Eco Art/Facebook

In a unanimous vote of 22 to 0 (with two absent) on Tuesday, the Board of Aldermen in Newton approved the plastic bag ban.

Officials proposed, and began debating, the proposed ban last year, arguing that only five percent of the town’s bags were recycled. A report by the city’s group Plastic Bag Working Group can be found in this document.

Efforts such as Green Decade thanked this morning its readers, many of whom wrote in favor of the ban to local politicians.

Greed Decade added that any retail stores with space less than 3,500 square feet or with many locations under 3,500 will be exempt from the ban, as well as those bags used for produced, dry cleaner and laundry detergents.

Lou’s Upcycles Eco Art also immediately took to social media, posting on Facebook the news, adding that Newton is the ninth community in the state to ban plastic bags joining Brookline, Falmouth, Great Barrington, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Marblehead, Nantucket, Newburyport, Newton and Provincetown. That’s 4 percent of Massachusetts’ population.

The ban is set to be in effect in 180 days.