Plan for East End regional plastic bag ban sputters

A proposal by Southampton Supervisor Anna Throne Holst calling for the towns and villages on the East End to ban the use of plastic bags isn’t gaining much traction.

Throne-Holst called for the ban at an East End Supervisors and Mayors Association meeting just before Earth Day this year, suggesting that the regional ban be implemented in time for Earth Day 2015.

Discussion at the meeting seemed favorable, according to Throne-Holst’s deputy chief of staff, Jennifer Garvey.

But “favorable” is not the word for the reception the idea has gotten during work session discussions in Riverhead and Southold. Even the Southampton Town Board, which rejected a town-wide plastic bag ban two years ago, hasn’t signed onto the regional ban idea yet, Garvey said. East Hampton has not even discussed the idea.

A majority of the Riverhead Town Board opposes the idea.

“It’s a business owner’s decision on how to deliver their products,” Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said during a work session discussion last month.

Councilman George Gabrielsen said farmers rely on plastic bags at their farm stands, where paper bags won’t work, he said. “I’m against banning them. It’s not good for farmers,” Gabrielsen said.

Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter also opposes a band. He and Gabrielsen both say people reuse the plastic bags, which are also recyclable.

Council members James Wooten and John Dunleavy both said they’d support a ban.

Walter said the issue is best dealt with by “a higher level of government.”

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell expressed a similar sentiment during a work session discussion yesterday, noting that grocery store owners would prefer “a regional approach.”

A plastic bag ban was brought before the Suffolk County Legislature some time ago, but the county “dropped it like a hot potato”, Russell said.

The supervisor said while he’d still see the county take the lead on the movement, an East End approach could work, but only if all five towns were onboard.

Riverhead, Russell said, is “a key player.”

Russell said Southold would create a committee to discuss the concept.

The villages of Southampton and East Hampton have already adopted plastic bag bans. No information could be immediately obtained on the status of the idea on Shelter Island.