Task force formed to tangle with plastic bags

Submitted by Anne H. Oman

Reporter-at-Large

Some 380 billion plastic bags are consumed in the United States each year. Many of them end up in the ocean, where they’re consumed – literally – by sea turtles, dolphins, and other marine animals, who mistake them for their favorite food, jellyfish. Animals and birds can be trapped in tangles of plastic. Ingested, the bags block intestines, causing malnutrition, starvation and death. According to the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, 100,000 sea turtles and other marine mammals die each year from ingesting plastic. Close to home, Dr. Terry Norton, Director of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, found a large plastic garbage bag in the stomach of a beach Pygmy Sperm Whale who died on Jekyll Island.

On Saturday, some two dozen Fernandina Beach residents gathered at Sheffield’s just before opening time to tackle the problem locally.

“We live in a marine environment, and plastic bags seriously impact marine animals,” said Julie Ferreira of the Sierra Club, convening the grass-roots meeting.

Like the Arab Spring and the revolution in Ukraine, this movement was spurred by social media. In January, Fernandina Beach City Commissioner Johnny Miller posted some pictures of marine animals entangled in plastic bags on Facebook.

Photo courtesy of alexandriava.gov

“I got a lot of responses,” said Commissioner Miller. “There was a lot of interest. I lived in Hawaii for five years. It’s an entirely island state, and plastic bags are banned. I realized that we’re an island, too.”

Maui, Kauai and the Big Island already ban the bags, and Oahu, the most populous island, will ban them beginning July 2015. Other jurisdictions that ban or restrict plastic bag use include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Belgium, Italy, Bangla Desh, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia, and communities in Connecticut, Alaska, Texas, North Carolina, Oregon and Washington.

In addition to imperiling animals, the plethora of plastic also impacts the boating community by fouling boat propellers and making a boat cruise less pleasant.

“We don’t want waterways full of plastic,” commented Monty Kitchen, National Director of the Suntex Boat Club, a boat-sharing company.

By one estimate, there are 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean.

Commissioner Miller talked to a lot of downtown merchants and concluded that “they don’t like the sound of the word ‘ban.’”

So despite the posters and announcements about the “Ban the Bag” meeting, the emphasis in Saturday’s session was on creating incentives for people to use alternative packaging and “say no to plastic bags.”

Said one attendee: “We can achieve the same effect by making it more attractive to use other kinds of bags.”

A woman from Minneapolis said that stores there make a donation to charity for every customer who brings his or her own canvas bag. Another woman said that “when I was in Europe and they charged me for a plastic bag, it certainly got my attention.” Another attendee asked: “Why do people use plastic bags? Because they’re free – we have to change people’s attitudes.”

Ms. Ferreira, of the Sierra Club, suggested staging a contest for local artists to design a canvas bag that could be sold at low cost and having the public vote on the winning design. That idea seemed to have traction, but one attendee stressed that “you can have the best bags in the world but unless you have outreach to the community, it won’t do any good.”

Working with school children and sponsoring an information booth at the upcoming Wild Amelia event were among the outreach ideas.

After a spirited discussion, a task force was formed to research what other communities have done and see whether merchants would support efforts to curtail plastic bags. Members of the task force include Ms. Ferreira, Rick Scott, Maggie Carlson, Tony Crawford, Kenneth Cain, Greg Holding, Carl Henderson, and Eliza Holliday. Laurie Miller, Commissioner Miller’s wife, will design a Facebook page. Commissioner Miller said he would introduce legislation to curtail plastic bag use “if there’s enough support.”

A brief and random survey by the Fernandina Observer found mixed views among local users of bags.

A clerk at Atlantic Seafood volunteered that the problem with paper bags is that “we couldn’t put ice in them.”

A man from Kayak Amelia said they use compostable bags in the shop “but that doesn’t work with wet items.”

“Plastic bags?” said a woman at Southern Touch, handing a sturdy paper shopping bag to a customer, “I hate them.”

The Flash Foods store by Main Beach provides both paper and plastic bags, but, said a clerk, “most people want plastic because they want the handle.”

To answer the key question of how do you pick up dog poop without plastic bags, the Observer consulted Chris Hazelton, Manager of the Nassau Humane Society Dog Park.

“We use biodegradable plastic bags, which means they degrade in less than a year,” Mr. Hazelton said.

When told that even biodegradable bags could still impact sea animals, he indicated a willingness to look into alternatives.

“We’re here to help animals,” he said. “We certainly don’t want to hurt them.”

According to the American Progressive Bag Alliance, the industry trade group, plastic bag manufacturing in the United States provides more than 30,000 jobs. Florida’s nine manufacturing establishments employ 400 people, with a payroll of more than $15 million. The trade group points to recycling as a solution to the problem of errant bags. Locally, Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, Publix, Food Lion, Winn Dixie and Target have depositories for plastic bag recycling.

The task force will report to a general meeting on April 5 at 3 pm at Sheffield’s.

 Editor's Note: Anne H. Oman  relocated to Fernandina Beach from Washington, D.C. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Star, The Washington Times, Family Circle and other publications.  We thank Anne for her contributions to the Fernandina Observer.

March 11, 2014 10:13 p.m.