BOROUGH EYES PLASTIC BAG BAN

Mayor Dianne Herrin pitches plan to limit use of ubiquitous bags

Go to the grocery store, bag your bread and milk, and you probably don’t think about the impact, borough Mayor Dianne Herrin said.

Herrin wants the borough to become the first municipality in Pennsylvania to limit the use of plastic bags at the checkout counter.

She recently met with four students from the West Chester Friends School. The group, Paige Fisher, William Bradley, Auden Vosburgh, Lulu Slattery and their teacher Amy Domenick asked the mayor to push a ban on plastic bags in the borough.

This group of fifth-graders, who are also part of the Quaker Leadership Team at WCFS, are aware of what Herrin said are the damaging effects plastic is having on our environment. They all agreed, with enthusiasm, that we need to work together to stop plastics from going into the ocean. The best solution, the students determined, is no more plastic.

Over the next few months, the students will conduct research on how their initiative can be put into action. A large part of that research will generate a transition plan for borough businesses.

“We need to listen to everyone’s concerns and ease them into the ordinance,” Bradley said.

The students understand the issue of cash flow when it comes to small businesses and will be reaching out to several local shops that already have implemented a no plastic bag program.

The students hope their efforts will spread to other towns and eventually turn into a state-wide ban. First, however, they will present their plan to borough council. The students

“I am very impressed with these young citizens of the 21st century. I fully support their efforts to make our community a more sustainable, healthier place to live and work.” — West Chester Mayor Dianne Herrin

will meet again in June to share their research with Herrin and discuss the next steps to getting their initiative adopted.

“I am very impressed with these young citizens of the 21st century,” Herrin said. “I fully support their efforts to make our community a more sustainable, healthier place to live and work.”

Herrin noted the following in an email:

• Last year, Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a bill proposed by the state Legislature that would have curbed the right of towns and cities to regulate use of plastic shopping bags. Wolf said it would have violated the Environmental Rights Amendment of the state Constitution.

• Currently, no community in the state has banned the use of plastic bags. In the tradition of being a local leader in sustainability, West Chester aims to be the first, thanks to help from the young leaders from The Friends School.

• Statistics show the average time a plastic bag is in use is 12 minutes, yet it may remain a part of the environment for decades or longer, clogging drainage systems, damaging infrastructure, littering our environment, harming animals, and ending up in the oceans where they endanger sensitive marine environments. Plastic bags often end up jamming machines at recycling plants, as well. Americans use up to 500 billion plastic bags each year.

• Plastics are produced from natural gas liquids, the highly volatile products carried through the Mariner East pipelines, Herrin said. “We need to connect these dots and ask ourselves: Are we willing to allow dangerous pipelines to run through our communities so we can support a single-use plastics future that is killing our planet? The answer is no, and we need to stop demand for many of these products that are unnecessary in the first place. We simply don’t need plastic bags. There is a better way for our communities – and for our children.”

• The Mayor’s Office is also working with Kildare’s to initiate a “ban the plastic straw” campaign in restaurants in our town.

SUBMITTED PHOTO A group of students wants to limit plastic bags and are spearheading an initiative to do just that in West Chester. The students, from left Lulu Slattery, Auden Vosburgh, William Bradley, Paige Fisher, Mayor Dianne Herrin and Amy Domenick pose while brainstorming.

BILL RETTEW — DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Those ubiquitous plastic bags soon may be a thing of the past in West Chester, if Mayor Dianne Herrin has her way.