What's Wrong With Barrington's Plastic Bag Ban? I'll Tell You!

I hate plastic Bags. I would wager that at last night’s meeting I had more reason to hate them than anyone in the room. You see, my wife and I have a 2.7 acre in Barrington with large oak trees when the wind blows there are always bags in the trees.

There is a stream that runs through
the property for about 300 yards. When it overflows as it did several times
this summer we get dozens maybe a hundred of those plastic bags in question
that end up in the stream or in the perpetual swamp that surrounds it. Also the
way the town laid out the roads, all roads from all directions lead to my drive
way and the open sewer that was placed next to it. All the plastic bags, from
every direction, not just upstream, all flow directly to my property. I hate plastic
bags. But I use them. They are very useful things and I have 6 kids and 3 dogs
so without going into detail they all get full use when I get them. But of
course it is not just bags. It is soda bottles, beer bottles, vodka bottles;
juice foil containers even foil condom wrappers and my personal nemesis: The
Dunkin Doughnuts coffee Coolata plastic cut. I have even dragged 2 non
disposable re-useable cloth bags from the swamp, the ones that were touted as
the solution to everything at the meeting last night. All that plastic that
ends up on my property flows down through 50-60 other Barrington properties, then
they go right into the bay and from there right to the town beach.

Of course everything that was discussed last night will not
reduce any of the bags that go into the bay that pass through my property. It
will probably even increase the number of bags going into the bay. You see I live
in Barrington about 200 yards from the Shaws in Riverside that directly abuts the
stream that goes to my property. If you want to see a lot of plastic bags, go
to their parking lot on a windy day. The Shaw’s in Barrington is very well
kept, Riverside not so much so. And a lot of things end up in the open stream
on the edge of the parking lot.

The first problem I had with last night is I don’t like the
concept of a ban, the purpose of which is to make people feel good, make politicians
look good and accomplish very little. That is what this ban is all about.

Second Problem:

I don’t know how many
of the people speaking have ever owned a small retail business, But having
owned, managed or consulted for about 15, I can tell you. You don’t allow a
business to charge for a paper bag. Not 8 cents not 10 cents. We can charge
anything we want for a paper bag. We don’t because if we did the customers
would laugh at us and when they were done laughing they would shop elsewhere.
It is insulting to charge for a bag. I t just isn’t done. It is like charging a
customer for water at a restaurant. The customer will leave.

My third Problem last night was the science. I have never
heard more conflicting, agenda driven science studies in my life. My opinion
all the studies cited last night were all wrong, and were created to prove the
researchers point of view. I was waiting for the report that proclaimed plastic
bags make a great dessert topping.

My fourth problem was every time the environment group
proclaimed that “14 Barrington businesses support the ban” I just grinded my
teeth. Can you imagine the scene: A group of young environmental activist come
into your store and say so you support saving the environment right?  Who is going to say no? Who would face a
boycott or bad press? Everyone in business who is trying to save their swimming
pools says yes to that group. You might as well ask Romney and Obama if they
like children and puppies! Are they going to say no! I am against puppies! Just
crazy.

My fifth problem last night is that the Democrats pushing
the proposal were displaying Republican policy at its best. It is always scary
when Democrats sound like Republicans  It
was a page out of Mitt Romney’s playbook. Mitt Romney passed health care in
Mass and then claimed he was against Obama’s plan because the states should
decide for themselves. If Barrington passes this ill-conceived idea then the
state will claim, using Barrington as the case in point that all municipalities
should come up with their own ban. Which means the Shaws in Riverside, the one
that puts more bags in the bay than the one in Barrington, will keep putting
plastic into the stream that goes directly into the bay. Because East
Providence is trying to keep it’s schools open and stay out of Bankruptcy and does
not have time or money to waste on this foolishness.

And then the bombshell! Shaws stated that they would stop
using plastic bags.  A brilliant move.
More power to them. Faced with the prospect of being the only supermarket in
New England Outside of Westport Conn. to face a mandatory ban on bags they got out ahead of it, and took credit for doing it voluntarily. Very smart.

I questioned the spokesman afterwards, I asked if it was permanent and they said
it was going to be done to gauge the impact on losing business to competitors.
That should be easy to track since Barrington’s closest supermarket competitor
is Shaws in Riverside. I asked since it was such a good idea to ban plastic
bags wouldn’t it be a good idea to ban in Riverside also? He responded there
are no plans to do that at this time. But then why should they. Shaws was not
and will not be facing a plastic bag ban from Riverside.

What started all of this? I have a suspicion. I read in the initial
articles that the Roger Williams political science assistant professor who
brought it to the council had published an academic white paper on this
subject. My wife, who is an elementary Spanish teacher at Henry Barnard School,
is also an assistant professor at Rhode Island College. And for all such people
one problem they face is they have to get tenured. Getting tenured in college
is different than at public schools. College you have to get published. For some
subjects it is easy to do. My friend Gary Shore produced a movie that I was in
that he submitted to film festivals. My wife is having a hard time but is
presenting at conferences all over the country. I asked her if publishing a
white paper on a plastic bag ban would be enough for political science. She
told me no you would have to put it into action into the community. Well it
certainly is in action in the community and it is being steered by another
Roger Williams political Science professor who works with the author and is the
chair of our town council. I could be wrong but it seems like too much inside
baseball for me to be a coincidence. I hate thinking we got everyone riled up
so someone could get tenured. But that is what I think.