An idea. I’m brainstorming here. The plastic bag industry definitely has gotten the memo loud and clear about recycling plastic bags. However, the plastic bag recycling industry wants clean dry thin filmed plastic bags for recycling, not soiled ones. That means they want plastic bags to be returned to participating stores. Neither the plastic industry […]
I just vowed I wouldn’t go there, put people ask me, “Why in the world do you want to have plastic bags so much?” And for anyone thinking or saying that I must be in the pocket of the plastic bag industry (because that seems to be the immediate reaction if you happen to like […]
I went to Tuesday night’s meeting held by the Newburyport City Council on the Plastic Bag ban, and it was without doubt the most frustrating and depressing meeting that I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to a lot of meetings), and my read was that I wasn’t exactly alone in feeling that way. The […]
Look, not only do I get that plastic bags are detrimental to our wetland and coastal areas, I agree with it. However, instead of an outright ban, I’d like a reasonable and practical effort to minimize the use of single use plastic bags. And I understand that Market Basket has been unresponsive to this issue […]
The Newburyport City Council meeting, the Council of a Whole, to discuss the proposed Ban the Plastic Bag Ordinance, is taking place Tuesday April 1, 2014 at 7PM at City Hall. This is where the public can express their opinions, and legally the members of the City Council can talk about the proposed ordinance together. […]
Forgive me, but here I go again. What I see in the Ban Plastic Bags Ordinance, as it is now written and as it has been presented (see 2 earlier posts here and here), is “progressives” overreaching and making the same mistake they made in the 2008-2009 council. People may not remember that the City […]
There is stuff afoot that would have our Newburyport City Government pass legislation banning plastic bags. I’m not for this. Yesterday I emailed the Mayor and the Newburyport City Councilors. The email was pretty simple: “Dear Mayor Holaday and Newburyport City Councilors, Please leave my plastic bags alone. I recycle and reuse faithfully. (And I […]
The Newburyport “Plastic Bag Ban” goes into effect March 29, 2015. Market Basket ran out of plastic bags and is already started with the plastic bag ban. You can bring your recyclable bags, or get paper bags, paper boxes or pay 10 cents and get a recyclable plastic bag with handles that meets the new […]
I really like the idea of a single use plastic bag recycling slurping machine. (Please see earlier entry here.) First of all, the plastic bag industry has a huge PR problem on their hands. The sustainable bag folks are right, plastic bags are wandering around not only our local environment, but all over the place. […]
I had two emotions watching last night Newburyport City Council during the public comment period (this is where the public can express their opinion to the City Council before the Council gets down to business). On the one hand, I was enormously impressed that the young people in our community want to and are learning […]
I don’t know how to write this post without sounding like a real “bitch.” There is a proposed ordinance (piece of legislation) that is coming before the Newburyport City Council on Monday night, March 17, 2014, to ban the use of “single use, thin filmed plastic bags,” i.e. the plastic bags one gets at Market […]
Last year I worked on a national level to save the Affordable Care Act (ACA) from Republican repeal efforts. It was fascinating and not unlike local politics. And my experience in local politics helped me emotionally navigate this new political terrain. I joined up online with a bunch of folks at Vox.com, the group is […]
I find myself often late to many planets. Late to the David Sedaris planet (my discovery of David Sedaris, or the “scull guy,” Christmas 2008 here), who has now become probably my most favorite writer, and “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” probably my most favorite book. (An Instagram portrait of my son, Hal, who always, […]
I pissed off a lot of people with the “Please Leave My Plastic Bags Alone” post. I was even asked not to write anything more about the subject (democracy, free speech anyone??), so, at least for now, technically I won’t. This has been making the rounds on the internet for months and months and months […]
Today, walking into Market Basket, one of Newburyport’s grocery stores , the one that I have shopped at for decades, it felt as if there had been a local disaster, and the employees were required to do their best, stocking what they could in a very spooky feeling store. I walked around, took photos, and […]