2015.08.24 Council Agenda Item 07

In June of 2014, residents wrote to the Falmouth Town Council inquiring about potential regulation on disposable shopping bags, in observance of the City of Portland’s adoption of their policy; which places a 5 cent fee on both paper and plastic shopping bags. The fee in Portland remains with the retailers, and applies to those who sell 2% of total sales from food.

REAC has conducted education and outreach including the following:

• polling residents at the 2014 November elections;
• providing reusable bags and additional information at June 2015 elections;
• conducting an online survey, similar to the polling conducted at the November election;
• interviewing municipalities with adopted policies to regulate the use of disposable shopping bags;
• hosting educational events with the Falmouth Memorial Library;
• conducing litter clean ups in Falmouth;
• applying for a grant through NRCM to purchase reusable bags;
• supplying reusable bags to the Food Pantry and the General Assistance Program;
• participating in regional efforts on this issue; and
• interviewing Falmouth businesses on how a potential ordinance would affect their business.

REAC offered an initial presentation recommendation options to the Town Council in January, 2015. Based on further research and input from the community, REAC believes that the recommendation should be altered slightly to reflect the needs of businesses in Falmouth. What will be presented redirects what the committee believes is the most appropriate action to take to lessen burdens on those potentially impacted by a new policy, with the long term goal of reducing the use of plastic bags and shifting towards utilization of reusable bags while shopping.

A more detailed description of this effort is attached along with a PowerPoint presentation that will be offered at the meeting.