2015.11.09 Council Agenda Item 06

The Falmouth Town Council tasked the Recycling and Energy Advisory Committee (REAC) with researching and developing a policy recommendation regarding single-use shopping bags over the last year. The Town Council recently accepted REAC's recommendation to model the recently adopted ordinance from Portland. The Ordinance Committee, working with staff and the town attorney, have used most of the Portland ordinance with some differences. Most differences are stylistic but a couple of them are unique, including the following:

• Portland applies the regulations to any business that has a minimum of 2% gross sales coming from food sales. Falmouth will apply the regulations to any store with at least 10,000 square feet.
• Falmouth chose to expand its definition of a reusable bag. A reusable bag in Falmouth must be at least 4 millimeters thick, rather than a standard 2.25 millimeter thickness found in the Portland ordinance. This will ensure that moderately heavier gauge plastic bags will not be used as an alternative bag that is far less likely to be used as a reusable bag. 
• Finally, Falmouth’s proposal excludes commercial greenhouses/horticultural nurseries because their overall square footage is large but the retail portion of the Falmouth greenhouses/nurseries is far smaller than 10,000 square feet. 

A copy of the proposed ordinance and a letter of introduction from the Ordinance Committee are attached.