Portland adopts bag fee, foam container ban
Starting in April 2015, grocery stores and other food sellers in Portland will have to start charging customers for paper and plastic bags. And polystyrene foam containers, currently used by stores like Dunkin’ Donuts, will be banned.
That’s after a divided Portland City Council approved the two regulations in separate 6-3 votes on Monday night — a move that has been opposed by business groups and supported by environmental groups, the Bangor Daily News reported.
The first measure will require Portland businesses that generate at least 2% of its sales from food to charge five cents for every paper and plastic shopping bag given to customers. Those businesses will be able to retain the bag fee revenue.
The second measure will ban Portland businesses from using polystyrene foam containers and cups, though there will be an exemption when used for raw seafood products. The ban could be lifted if a recycling program began accepting polystyrene.
Both measures have been opposed by several business groups, including the Maine Grocers & Food Producers Association, Maine Restaurant Association, Maine Energy Marketers Association, Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce and American Chemistry Council.
Shelly Doak, executive director of the Maine Grocers & Food Producers Association, told the BDN that “taking money out of the pockets of Portland residents by increasing their grocery bills is bad policy,” referring to the bag fee.
The measures, however, have seen support from several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Friends of Casco Bay, Surfrider Foundation, Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Conservation Law Foundation.
“Styrofoam and plastic bags are more than unsightly eyesores; their production wastes energy and causes pollution, and they eventually end up as costly toxic litter,” Glen Brand, director of the Sierra Club’s Maine chapter, said in a statement to the BDN. “Single-use plastic bags easily escape from garbage trucks, landfills, boats and average consumers’ hands. Carried by the wind, they end up in streams, ponds, lakes, rivers, and clogging storm drains, jamming recycling equipment and floating out to Casco Bay and the ocean.”
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