Narberth Passes PA's First Ordinance Restricting Plastics

NARBERTH, PA — Narberth passed an ordinance on Wednesday night restricting the usage of plastic by businesses within the borough, becoming the first municipality to do so in Pennsylvania. The action, taken in view of the environmental damage caused by plastics, has sparked proposed statewide legislation.

The ordinance means that all customers at Narberth businesses will be charged ten cents for a single use plastic bag. The business in question will keep those ten cents. The ordinance also flat out bans single use plastic straws at all borough businesses, with the only exception being when they are provided as assistance to accommodate a disability.

The ordinance was passed unanimously during the Borough Council Business Meeting on Wednesday night (watch the full meeting below). Upon conclusion of the vote, the chamber broke out into applause.

"We do not need to live this way," Joseph Otis Minott, the Executive Director of the Clean Air Council, a national environmental nonprofit, wrote in a letter addressed to Narberth's Public Works Committee. "Municipalities should not continue to subsidize their residents' apathy to the detriment of a clean environment and costly expenditures to clean up plastic waste and litter."

California became the first state to pass a ban on plastic bags in 2014, the National Conference of State Legislatures said. It's joined by Hawaii. Similar legislation is pending in 10 other states (not yet Pennsylvania, more on that below), while several major cities have now require fees for plastic bags (New York City, Washington, D.C., Boulder, Colorado) or have outright banned them (Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle).

Narberth, however, is carrying the torch for the Keystone State. But in the wake of Wednesday's vote, State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery/Delaware) and State Rep. Mary Jo Daley (D-Montgomery) will be introducing similar legislation on the statewide level during a special event Friday morning at Station Circle in Narberth.

Plastics are ingested by wildlife and are responsible for widespread pollution. A total of around 8.8 million tons of plastic winds up in the oceans each year, the World Wildlife Fund says. There's also the larger carbon footprint: the United States uses about 100 billion plastic bags each year, which requires about 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

Legislation was in the works in Pennsylvania last summer that would have prevented any local municipality in the state from passing an ordinance like Narberth's. It landed on Gov. Wolf's desk, but he vetoed it.

Supporters of this type of legislation hope it leads to greater dependency on resusable bags. Detractors, such as those who lobbied to press the bill to Wolf's desk last year, include plastic bag manufacturers who cite the benefit of job creation.

Officials stressed that the ordinance is not a tax, as the business recoups the extra fee from the bag use.

The heart of the ordinance states, "Borough Council intends to preserve, maintain, and enhance the health of its residents and visitors, as well as the public natural resources and common property within the Borough, by regulating the distribution of single-use, carry-out plastic bags and straws."

You can view Narberth's ordinance in its entirety here.

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