New Bedford city council asks mayor to delay enforcement of plastic bag ban. Will he?

Linda Roy

Standard-Times

 Published Feb. 21, 2022 

NEW BEDFORD — Remember that plastic grocery bag ban that was supposed to go into effect in June 2020, but didn’t? 

Mayor Jon Mitchell hasn’t forgotten about it. 

But the city council wants him to — for now. 

At the council’s Feb. 10 meeting, Councilor Brian Gomes said he wanted an immediate suspension of the plastic bag ban ordinance. 

Gomes said it was brought to his attention that elderly people or those without cars who take the city bus have trouble handling multiple paper bags.  

“I have reports of [paper] bags ripping in the stores,” Gomes said, along with the bags not being able to hold up in the rain. “I’m all for a cleaner city and no plastic bags around, but this is something that we really have to go back and look at.” 

'The only way to suspend an ordinance is to pass another ordinance'

The suspension attempt by Gomes, however, was stopped dead in its tracks when David Gerwatowski, city council attorney, said it was not within the council’s ability to vote a suspension of the ordinance. He did say the council could work to draft a new ordinance. 

“The only way to suspend an ordinance is to pass another ordinance,” Gerwatowski advised. 

He said the council could ask the mayor to hold off on enforcing the ban until the council could revisit the ordinance and possibly come up with a new ordinance to replace or suspend the original one. 

The council voted 10-1, with Councilor Shane Burgo opposed, to ask Mitchell to hold off on enforcing the plastic bag ban. 

Contacted several days later about the council’s request, the mayor’s office indicated that the ban is still on track to be enforced. 

“Enforcement of the plastic bag ban likely will begin this spring, but no specific date has been set,” city spokesperson Mike Lawrence said by email. “We thank local businesses that already are implementing this ban and using paper bags and advise all affected businesses to prepare for the end of plastic bag use.” 

In 2020, the city council unanimously approved the ban on single-use plastic bags. The ban applied to stores with a retail space of 10,000 square feet or larger or with at least two locations under the same name or same ownership within the city with retail space that totals that amount. 

The initial enforcement was delayed due to an increase in COVID-19 infections and the surge of the omicron virus variant. 

Gomes noted that while some markets and stores made the move to paper bags, at least one major market in the city had not.