Shrewsbury Plastic Bag Farce

The Shrewsbury town meeting members who voted with glee for Article 13 to ban traditional plastic bags should be ashamed they were led like lemmings to impose one of the worst anti-business by-laws in the history of the town by progressives with a personal agenda. Next they will seek to ban all plastic bags, plastic water and juice bottles, and once they make the town The People's Republic of Shrewsbury, like Cambridge and Concord, they'll likely push for Sanctuary Status.

The "fabulous" presentation left out real facts but that is typical for those with an agenda. The real fact is that the substantial majority of current bags and new compostable and marine degradable bags will end up in the same place - incinerated in Millbury and buried in the ash dump in Shrewsbury.

You weren't told the truth that the bag a woman complained was in a tree won't compost in the tree and all of the alleged bags blowing around also won't compost or degrade very quickly since that is not how the science works. Depending on the type of material used for the new required bags, the cost increase can range from 2 to 10 times the cost of current bags and some can still have long times to degrade and the cost increase WILL be passed on to the consumers. Great job!

Unlike the proponents, I spoke to managers at Stop & Shop, Price Chopper, CVS, Jimmy's and Two Ovens. They all confirmed the new by-law would cost them a lot of money which they will pass on to the consumer. They can't believe the change in business climate in Shrewsbury with the Town now being forced to micromanage the daily operations of businesses.

The proponents claimed there was no need to actually consult with Town businesses to understand the impact and their justification is that the Town didn't consult with businesses when the local option meals tax was approved. This is a red herring on the part of the proponents and calls into question their credibility. The meals tax did not infringe upon the operation of the businesses and did not raise costs for the businesses as the new by-law does. Given the proponents misled town meeting members on that simple fact query what else they misled the public on.

It's curious the proponents cited the inability to recycle plastic bags as a major issue yet other than raising costs and intruding on the operation of the businesses the by-law doesn't address the issue of recycling. Also, although Shrewsbury is not near an ocean they pushed for marine degradable bags. I'm surprised the presentation didn't show pictures of humpback whales swimming in Lake Quinsigamond.

All this means is that we file another citizens' petition for next Town Meeting to reverse the absurdity and work to replace TM members who proposed and voted for it. There is still time to make Shrewsbury business-friendly again and America Great Again!

Bob Ryan