What Do New Zealand, Chile, Ireland, Dominica, and Camden Have In Common?

They have all examined the matter of single-use plastic bags in their environment. All the countries named in the headline have banned the use of these bags, and in the coming months Camden voters get to decide if they would like to join the ranks of hundreds of countries and municipalities to remove these bags from their waste streams, roadsides, and waterways. (More than 60 countries have banned single-use plastic bags—see https://www.cbsnews.com/news/over-60-countries-introduced-bans-fees-single-use-plastic-waste/)

During the last year a small group of concerned Camden residents have been researching the ways Camden can reduce its plastic, and therefore, carbon footprint (plastic manufacture, and recycling, uses fossil fuels) while also working toward a plastic-free harbor, fewer plastics in our waste stream, and cleaner roadsides and fields.

A subcommittee of the Camden Conservation Committee has presented two ordinances that will be discussed at a public hearing Tuesday, August 21, at the Camden Select Board hearing (630 p.m.—this topic is eighth on the agenda).

One ordinance bans the sale and use of expanded polystyrene foam (EPS foam, aka “styrofoam”) in town. The other bans the use of single-use plastic bags at retailers and other venues. 

Why does Camden need these ordinances?

There is no way to recycle EPS foam, so it goes into our trash; if thrown out the window (as many such cups are) it falls apart into small particles that are often mistaken as food by terrestrial and marine animals.

These plastic foam particles break down very slowly; thus, they stay in our local streams, harbors, or animals’ digestive tracks, causing harm.

According to the United Nations, plastic bags and EPS foam containers can take up to 1,000 years to decompose.

Research has shown that banning single-use plastic bags is the most-effective way to reduce wayside and marine litter.

You can review the research and powerpoint slides used at the select board workshop on July 24 here: https://byobcamden.wordpress.com/resources/

Over the course of last winter and spring the subcommittee met with town retailers and restauranteurs to discuss the ordinances, and the feedback was useful and highly positive. The subcommittee has also been working with citizens from Rockland, Belfast and Bath, towns that have also recently passed similar ordinances.

The public hearing this week provides a forum for Camden residents to help the select board decide about putting these ordinances on the November ballot. If the board denies the ordinances concerned citizens have another approach—a citizen’s petition to get the ordinances on the ballot.

Citizens wanting to help Camden change its approach to waste—moving from a throw-away society to one where reusable bags and containers become habitual—should attend this week’s select board meeting and use their voices to let the select board know that these ordinances belong on the November ballot.

Ordinances can be read, along with other important resources about plastics in our environment, at byobcamden.org. Help make Camden Plastic Free By the Sea.

 Molly Mulhern lives in Camden