By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Maine’s passage of a law prohibiting single-use polystyrene food and drink containers has been noticed here, where the legislature is considering several similar bills.
Jen Duggan, the vice president and director of Vermont’s Conservation Law Foundation, shared into the record part of the press release on the Maine measure signed by Gov. Janet Mills. Duggan was testifying to the Vermont House Committee on Natural Resources, Fish, and Wildlife, which has taken up S.113, which passed the Senate 30-0 a month ago.
This bill would prohibit food service establishments from providing single-use plastic carryout bags, plastic straws and polystyrene foam food packages to customers. It would also require the Agency of Natural Resources to convene a working group to see how well the plastic-bag ban works. Violators could receive fines up to $100.
The ban involves single-use products only. Consumers could use more durable, reusable bags even if they were made of plastic. Single-use paper bags would be allowed, but only with a charge of 5 cents per bag.
In addition to S.113, the committee has five other similar bills in front of it, proposing a ban on single-use products. The committee is hearing testimony this week on the subject.
“This bill is an important step forward in protecting Vermont communities and the environment from dangerous plastic pollution,” Duggan said in her testimony in favor of S.113 on April 26.
Duggan attached to her testimony a 2006 article from the Journal of Environmental Sciences about “Leaching of styrene and other aromatic compounds in drinking water from [polystyrene] bottles.” The article claims that hot water in foam cups was found to be contaminated with styrene from the foam, and that “bottled water may not be safer, or healthier, than tap water.”
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon and Washington are considering similar single-use product bans, and bans have already been enacted or agreed to in several towns in the U.S., and the European Union.
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