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Home My WebLink AboutPlastic Bag Ban Pubic Forum Good evening everyone. My name is Debbie O'Kane and I am the president of the North Fork Audubon Society. First of all I'd like to thank our town leaders for organizing this forum and for inviting all of us here to participate. The North Fork Audubon Society has been helping people connect with nature here on the North Fork for over 43 years. We do this through educational programs and activities and by advocating on behalf of the environment. Yes,we focus a lot on birds, but we are not just about birding and that's why I'm here tonight. A ban on single-use plastic bags is the subject of this forum and our organization has been working on this issue for a while now. Over the past several months we have collected approximately 600 signatures from a genuine cross-section of Southold Town residents supporting a ban on single-use plastic bags. Even our student group of Young Naturalists made a short film highlighting the risks and damages posed by the ubiquitous single-use plastic bag. I hope we have the opportunity to share this film with you all sometime. Ultra thin single-use plastic bags are notorious for ending up in our bays and Sound and eventually into the ocean where they are ingested by fish and sea mammals, blocking their digestive systems or entangling them, impairing their ability to survive. It is documented that at least 267 different species of wildlife are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of marine litter. Reducing the impacts of plastics in the marine environment is now a major impetus spurring bag regulations in Europe. The European Commission notes that"in the North Sea,the stomachs of 94 percent of all birds contain plastic." It is estimated that over one million birds and 100,000 marine mammals die each year from plastic debris. I'd like to pass around this photograph of a dead sperm whale, which was necropsied at an research facility in Greece. It's stated here that inside the whale's unusually bloated stomach, they found 100 plastic bags. In the United States alone, approximately 100 billion plastic bags are used by consumers every year. And, as my colleagues have pointed out, it takes about 12 million barrels of oil a year to manufacture the thousands upon thousands of single-use plastic bags that Americans so readily dispose of every day. I hope you can take a moment and imagine the industrial pollution involved in this manufacturing process. The majority of these are used once and once only and then discarded as waste. What is encouraging is that many countries, major cities and other municipalities have decided to ban single-use plastic bags. South Africa instituted a ban over ten years ago, back in 2003. Before the Beijing Olympics, national laws in China limited plastic bag production and estimates show that a reduction of 67 percent was achieved last year. Denmark has reduced the use of single-use plastic bags to about 4, and I will repeat that, reduced to about 4 per consumer per year. Back in the United States, a total of 133 city or county-wide plastic bag regulations have been put into place. These include such cities as Austin and Dallas,Texas primarily because cattle were found to be choking on the bags. Virtually all of Hawaii has banned the single-use plastic bag in order to protect its marine life. The states of California, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Texas, Rhode Island and North Carolina all have municipalities implementing plastic bag regulations. RECEIVED aouthold Town Clea We, at North Fork Audubon, encourage Southold Town to take on a leadership role in finding alternatives to the single-use plastic bag. It would be wonderful to have this effort take place,on a regional level, but it would certainly be amazing if we were the first Town on the East End to pass legislation to "kick the habit." If entire countries and major cities are able to accomplish a municipal ban, I would hope that a Town of 22,000 could put their minds and efforts together to come up with a fair and equitable solution. We understand that this is a process and we are willing to help in any way that we can. Perhaps one step in the process would be for our environmental organizations to help secure underwriting from local businesses to purchase reuseable bags which could then be distributed at Town Hall at no cost to the consumer. Education is key during a phase-out period which can be designed and managed by a task force of people just like the ones we have right here. I, personally, would like to see the elimination of single-use plastic bags in Southold Town by December 31, 2015. This is an ambitious goal, but it shouldn't be an impossible one. We, at the North Fork Audubon Society thank you all for you time and patience this evening. We are very pleased that this conversation has begun and hope that we all have the will to find mutual ground to move forward. u Southold Town hosting forum to discuss plastic bag ban I Suffolk Times Page 1 of 4 <!..[if It IE9><!endifI....><!-••[if It IEB]><![enclifj-••> Tin)esReview Our Si€es. $,ibSClibd 000 News f;overr:rneW, Police Education 4port5 opinion Cornmunity Obituaries Events 4Yfrt2res Rea:Estate I'ArerlOry Government Southold Town hosting forum to discuss plastic bag ban bt C:ysidi Murray I oltotj?4r43A:0 AR1 Tweet j71 ie Y fid'. '.S.K. ..;, t moi✓ �. �` ... r� M:,�'34s�Wfl•3C�4," :� �"S vv�� k a N'.. .e ,�. .m, r',�e�_��''-::ra+�a� �;,..,;�y,;'`¢.p $fir•"-�o-$.' ,K X=ry:yt<)�+:L>rra:f•.y bars.l rW:I:ntn; Should Southold Town ban local retailers from supplying plastic bags to customers? That is the question the Town Board is discussing during a public forum scheduled for Thursday,July 17. Members are set to discuss the details of the forum during the board's work session Tuesday morning. While Town special projects coordinator Phillip Beltz said the logistics of the forum are still being worked out,the basic plan is to have a group of panelists—including representatives from Southold Business Alliance, Group for the East End,North Fork Environmental Council and North Fork Audubon Society address the pros and cons of adopting the ban.The public will then be able to weigh in on the proposal. The forum comes as East End Supervisors and Mayors Association members recently pitched a regional bag ban following the success of a similar law passed by Southampton Village in 2011,which was subsequently laltded by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. That measure states that 11ariv nerson ent'aeed in retail sales shall orovide http://suffolktimes.timesreview.com/2014/07/49784/southold-town-ho sting-forum-to-discu... 7/17/2014 Southold Town hosting forum to discuss plastic bag ban Suffolk Times Page 2 of 4 only reusable bags and/or recyclable paper bags as checkout bags to customers,"and exempts plastic produce bags or plastic bags measuring 28 by 36 inches or larger in size.Fines range from$100 to$250 per offense. The forum will be scheduled for Thursday,July 17 at 6 p.m.in the Town Hall meeting room. pia,lic'Bag flan,pla.;{ic.bags,southold tOwn board,Tom)I fall Notes e Previous Post Next:Post> North Fork Dream Home:$3.9M Paula Thorp,every inch an Italian, Greenport estate chosen as grand marshal for Saturday's Suffolk Times Newsletter Sign Up Cutchogue parade ME SirniliarArticles Long Island Rail Road strike averted by The5uffnl4:Tinter tt717t�,4.T_ti7pm ............... _....... _....... . ................. . ..... .._ ....... .... .... _.f `Border children'reach Riverhead,reunite with family 7.'_• by f,arY'te}.jlllef 071t.7/1•i i?:i?{itYrn ....... _..................... ....... ........_...................._......................................_............_........... _.._................................ Tackling the affordable housing problem in Southold hyC?nidlblurray 07;'16f142:00pm northforker ^a HGIN's'Vacation House for free' .........._........... ... .. ....._._...._..... ,.x ' ._......_...._..._................_... . . ......._.................... :" tTlms apcmnmx elYisnde in Southold Southold MENEM ry {,nuntry Fest to rock Riverhead nextt✓�.kend Listen What's for lunch:Wayside Market in Southold Eat �w 14 open houses on the(North Fork from$208K to$850K this:veekertd 8"G:'3§i'OrfcQr Live Subscribe to the http://suffolktimes.timesreview.com/2014/07/49784/southold-town-hosting-forum-to-discu... 7/17/2014 Neville, Elizabeth From: Beltz, Phillip Sent: Friday,June 27,201411:59 AM To: Neville, Elizabeth; Finnegan, Martin;William Ruland; Bob Ghosio;Jim Dinizio;Jill Doherty - Forward; Louisa Evans; Russell, Scott Cc: Rudder, Lynda;Tomaszewski, Michelle; Standish, Lauren Subject: PUBLIC FORUM BAN OF PLASTIC BAGS Please mark your calendars: Public Forum on Consideration of Ban of Plastic Bags is scheduled for Thursday,July 17th at 6 p.m. in the Town Hall meeting room. Details to follow. Thank you. Phillip Beltz -Special Projects Coordinator Town of Southold Town Hall, 53095 Route 25 P.O. Box 1179 Southold, NY 11971-0959 #631-765-5806