Shelley F. Doak, Executive Director, Maine Grocers & Food Producers Association

Chris O’Neil, Portland Regional Chamber Liaison

Will Everitt, Friends of Casco Bay & Portland Resident.

By Carol McCracken  (Post # 2,125)

Late tonight the City Council voted 6 – 3 to endorse a .5-cent bag fee and pass an ordinance prohibiting food service establishments from serving food in packaging or containers made from polystyrene foam.  The ordinances will go into effect on April 15, 2015.

Councilors supporting the ordinances were John Hinck, Jill Duson, Kevin Donoghue, David Marshall, Ed Suslovic, and Mayor Michael Brennan.  Those voting against were Cheryl Leeman, Nick Mavodones, and John Coyne.  The Council vote followed two hours of public testimony with both sides of the argument equally represented; about 17 on each side, give or take several people.

Defending his support for the ordinances, Suslovic said that for the past two years, he’s been asking members of the business community to “show me the harm to the economic community.  I’m still waiting for it.  The business community  predictions of gloom and doom are overstated. How can it be called a tax if the city collects no revenue from it,” he stated in response to some of the evening’s testimony.  Uncharacteristically animated John Hinck, said:  “I’m glad we waited so long to vote on this.  It’s not often we have a chance to vote on something so important..” (Hinck was elected to the City Council last November.) Opponents of the ordinances said there is no certainty that the 5-cent fee will change behavior and that it does discriminate against businesses.   Mavadones said:  “If plastic is bad, it should be banned for everyone.” Leeman said she’s opposed to the ordinances because “humans and weather contribute to litter.”

Shelley F. Doak, Executive Director, Maine Grocers & Food Producers Association, testified in part:  “It would also lead you to believe that the highest percentage of the City’s waste is attributed to these bags.  I ask you, what percentage of Portland’s waste stream actually comes from these bags?  And why just limit this waste reduction fee to these multi-purpose bags?  What about the single use newspaper bag?  I can’t imagine how many newspaper bags are in circulation in Portland on any given day.” In contrast, Will Everitt, of Friends of Casco Bay and a Portland resident said in part: “This ordinance helps protect Casco Bay. More important than the appearances of our city streets and our waterway, though, is the fact that plastic bags are of serious and growing concern in the marine environment.  Plastic bags floating in Casco Bay mimic jellyfish and other edible critters. Harbor porpoises, seals, sea turtles and birds mistake these plastic bags for food and we end up harming the sea life that so many of….hope to see around the Bay.”

Chris O’Neil, city liason from the Portland Regional Chamber asked – “How long will it be before this committee will be back for the rest of our businesses?”