The Boston City Council met with constituents Tuesday night to discuss an ordinance that would place restrictions on plastic bag use.
Ban the Bag Boston, an association of volunteers, spoke out during the meeting in support of banning plastic bags in Boston.
City Councilor Matt O’Malley, who led the meeting, said after the meeting that he felt the discussion overall was positive, and development of the project will continue.
“We wanted to have a respectful, open conversation, and we did,” O’Malley said.
To close the meeting, O’Malley said he expects to see the formation of a finished ordinance early next year.
Laura Macneil, a member of Ban the Bag, said she hopes to see legislation on the issue pass in the near future.
“I always kind of walk away wanting some definitive answers,” Macneil said after the meeting. “But I do think the meeting was successful in that we heard a lot of new ideas and more roads to possibilities.”
However, despite her positive outlook on the likelihood of passing the ordinance, Macneil also recognizes the challenges Ban the Bags faces in pushing for the legislation.
“We live in a neighborhood full of dog walkers, full of people who need plastic bags, or think they need those bags,” Macneil said. “Clearly we can do without them, but shifting the mentality of need away from them is going to be a challenge.”
Macneil also said she hopes more people start to get involved in the conversation about eliminating plastic bags, and the recent discussions surrounding plastic bag restrictions could bring about change.
“It felt like this was something more achievable than it has been in the past,” she said.
O’Malley said he hopes to see the increased involvement of local businesses in these discussions.
“People from the industry may be concerned about this, and they’re part of this conversation too,” O’Malley said. “I want to make sure small business owners, who will be very impacted by it, are able to have their questions answered or offer a perspective that we may not have.”
One dissenter to the Ban the Bags group claimed during the discussion that though the use of plastic bags should be discouraged, a complete ban on plastic bags would be irresponsible in the greater context. In place of a complete ban, the dissenter proposed placing a tax or fee on plastic bags harmful to the environment.
Attendees at the meeting said they hope to see the City Council pass environmentally friendly legislation in the future.
Jacob Blanton, 29, of Jamaica Plain, and a volunteer for the councilman’s office, was hopeful about the legislation.
“I’m interested in seeing an ordinance come to fruition here as a citizen,” Blanton said.
James Coakley, 17, of Roslindale, a Boston Latin School senior and former intern at the City Council, said he is interested in following environmentally friendly legislation in his community.
“I attended this meeting because I’m part of a climate action group at Boston Latin,” Coakley said. “I thought it was something that’s going to be really prevalent to me if I choose to stay in the city in the future.”
After the meeting, Coakley said he felt that it went well, although he hoped it would result in more substantial steps being taking to protect the environment.
“I wish we could have more progressive solid steps going forward,” Coakley said. “But really, that’s hard to do when you have such an open forum setting, so overall I think it was a successful meeting with a lot of different voices being heard.”
