HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Amesbury
as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.
[Adopted 3-12-2019 by
Bill No. 2019-004]
The City of Amesbury hereby restricts the use of thin-film plastic
bags for the bagging of customer purchases at and by retail establishments
throughout the City, except as identified in the list of exemptions
provided in this article.
This article shall also be cited as the "Plastic Bag Reduction
Ordinance."
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
A carryout bag provided by a retail establishment to a customer
at the point of sale.
Any person, corporation, partnership, business venture, or
vendor that sells or provides merchandise, goods or materials directly
to the customer, including but not limited to convenience and grocery
stores, restaurants, pharmacies, stores that sell wine, beer or spirits,
seasonal and temporary businesses, gift and clothing stores and shops,
gas stations, and household goods stores.
Bag made of plastic that is 3.0 mils (3/1,000 inch) in thickness
or less.
A.
The purpose of this article is to reduce the amount of thin-film
plastic bags used at City retailers in an effort to protect the environment
and waterways by reducing the amount of this typically single-use,
nonrecycleable/noncompostable material in landfills, waterways, as
litter, and in the recycling bin or cart.
B.
Plastic checkout bags are infrequently recycled and often disposed
of improperly. Low rates of voluntary recycling, not appropriate for
municipal curbside recycling, clog and damage the mechanisms of recycling
machinery. Plastic bags are not allowed in the City's single
stream recycling bins (see DPW web page), and their wrongful inclusion
in recycling bins clogs machinery and stops workflow at recycling
processing centers. Inclusion of these bags can contribute to truckloads
of recyclable materials being deemed too impure and thus dumped wholly
as trash, causing additional cost burdens to municipalities such as
ours and additional volume in landfills.
C.
Plastic bags are a well-documented ecologically damaging material
to US and global lands and waterways, and the reduction of said material
is an important local step that our community can take to reduce this
harm. Rather than eventually breaking down into benign substances,
plastic bags fracture into small plastic particles (microplastics)
which persist indefinitely in the environment.
D.
There are currently 91 municipalities in Massachusetts, hundreds
of communities nationally and internationally, several whole countries,
as well as some US states that have, or are now considering, bag bans,
including Massachusetts (HD.134 and SD.896). More information is available
at http://www.massgreen.org/plastic-bag-legislation.html.
The following list contains the allowed exemptions to this article:
A.
Newspapers and postal delivery bags.
B.
Dry cleaning bags.
C.
Bags in which loose produce or loose products, such as baked goods,
are placed by a consumer to deliver such items to the point of sale
or checkout area.
D.
Bags used to contain or wrap deli counter products, frozen food,
meat or fish, whether prepackaged or not.
E.
Take-out/leftover bags at restaurants that include food or beverage
containers that might reasonably be anticipated to seep, drip, or
spill.
F.
Checkout bags at grocery stores whose interior finished floor area
is less than 15,000 square feet. This exemption does not apply to
stores that sell groceries but that also operate in conjunction with
a pharmacy or gas station.
A.
Upon first violation, the City shall issue a written warning notice
to the retail establishment for the initial violation, requiring correction
of the violation within 30 days.
B.
If the violation is not corrected within the specified time of 30
days, or an additional violation of this article occurs at some later
date after the initial 30 days, the City shall issue a notice of violation
and shall impose a penalty against the retail establishment.
C.
The penalty for each violation that occurs after the issuance of
the warning notice shall be $50 for the first offense; $100 for the
second offense and all subsequent offenses. Payment of such fines
may be enforced through civil action in the state District Court.
A retail establishment that violates this article can be penalized
by a noncriminal disposition as provided for in MGL c. 40, § 21D.
D.
No more than one penalty shall be imposed on a retail establishment
within a seven-day calendar period.
E.
A retail establishment shall have 30 calendar days after the date
that a notice of violation has been issued to pay the penalty.
F.
Enforcement of this article shall be the responsibility of the Health
Department.
The requirements set forth in this article shall become effective
six months after the last day of the month of its passage. However,
in circumstances where a retail establishment requires additional
time in order to draw down its existing inventory of thin-film plastic
checkout bags, the retail establishment can request an extension in
writing. If the City grants the retail establishment an extension,
the retailer will be allowed three additional months to reach compliance
with the article meaning that said retail establishment must be in
compliance no later than nine months after the last day of the month
of its passage.
Each section of this article is an independent section, and
in the event any section or part thereof is determined by a court
of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional, void or ineffective
for any reason, such determination shall not invalidate any other
sections or parts thereof.
