Rockland Gears Up For Plastic Bag Ban Effective Jan. 1, 2019
The ban on single-use plastic bags and carryout polystyrene foam containers, voted unanimously by the Rockland City Council in March this year, will take effect on January 1, 2019. The phased implementation of the ban was mainly aimed at helping stores to get rid of their current bag inventory.
The Rockland City Council had taken up the draft ordinance prohibiting retailers from handing out single-use shopping bags and polystyrene foam containers to customers in February this year. Also, the public comment period revealed overwhelming support for plastic bag and Styrofoam container bans. The original ordinance had also proposed fee for paper bags to be distributed to those shoppers who do not bring their own reusable bag, but was later removed calling for further discussions. The proposed fee structure for paper bags was five cents in first year, which could go up to 15 cents in the third year. However, the proposal failed to garner public support, especially from business owners.
The Council plans to distribute as many as 5,000 large, reusable bags to city residents free of cost, in an attempt to encourage reuse of bags.
As per the ban ordinance sponsored by Councilor Ed Glaser, violators of the ban would be liable to pay a fine of $100 for first violation and $250 for subsequent violations.
In mid-November this year, the Maine Town of Camden too had approved a similar ban on use of single-use plastic bags and polystyrene foam containers. It had also proposed to charge 10-cents per paper bag.
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