SMART is a good solution for munis, assuming there is adequate infrastructure and education in place at the town level.

Will slides be available later?

CCE agrees strongly that "compostable bags" should not be exempted, as this would not solve the msw problem or prevent potential impacts to wildlife if they are not disposed of correctly

This would have the potential to create a shift from plastic to compostable, instead of promoting a shift from single-use to reusable, thus defeating the purpose of a bag ban

The problem with plastic bags isn't so much that they are an issue for municipal solid waste. It's the environmental and health aspects that are motivating the bans.

Plastic bags create costly delays to municipal recycling infrastructure and are a real concern to the MRFs. The environmental impact is central to this issue, but their impacts on the cost and efficiency of municipal recycling are not insignificant

Do you have any questions? Please post them here for any of our speakers.

Instead of mils, consider banning polyethylene and PVC bags.

There are very, very thin but sturdy and re-usable bags available now. Should we not use thickness or material and instead ban free check-out bags?

Focus on materials and thickness both present challenges and potential pitfalls. We recommend emphasizing "single-use vs. reusable" and use a higher fee on renewables (no less than 10 cents)

i.e. "Ban on single-use plastic bags and fee of not less than 10 cents on reusable"

Hamden has a councilman who will work on a town ordinance after Nov 6. Hamden is low income in the south, and middle class in the north. What can we expect?

Would that problem not be solved if the law put a fee on "reusable bags" and not just on paper?

Great work Liz & Jeanine

there are fees are many reusable bags as well as paper bags

thanks lou

Can we please share https://www.productstewardship.us/page/PlasticPoliciesThis PSI website has model plastic bag legislation suggestions at this site, for multiple approaches. Perhaps it could be added to the BYOCT.org website, as well.

will look at - thank you

Sherill, many have asked for a more accurate estimate on how many bags are used in CT on an annual basis. Can you tell us what number DEEP is currently using for this stat? Thanks

We have no stats on plastic bag consumption.

Instead of defining minimum mils, does anyone know a reason not to just ban plastic bags by material, specifically polyethylene and PVC?

ASTM6400 standard for Compostable says "the material must be 90% disintegrated within 6-8 weeks." That is far to long and still poses a threat to wildlife. Additionally, there is no standard for compostability in a marine environment

If you have questions, please post them here. We will pose questions to all our spakers at the end of the webinar.

peg - good question - in greenwich we were bombarded by all different types of materials in reusable bags that made it challenging for us at the time to address without mil — but perhaps now there is a better definition to be developed.

We have been told that it could be illegal (via a federal non-discrimination law) to exempt WIC/SNAP recipients from complying with plastic bag ordinances. Jennie, have you ever encountered this argument?

Our No-Freeze Director is in favor of the ban. It seems pretty condescending to assume people who are poor can't BYO a bag.

Thank you sherill

Are there paper bags that use more post-consumer waste?

thank you sherill, jennie & liz