BREWSTER – Town meeting voters in eight Cape Cod communities will decide this spring on a ban of the purchase and sale of plastic bottles at municipal offices.
The bottle ban measure will be before voters in Brewster, Chatham, Dennis, Harwich, Orleans, Sandwich, Wellfleet and Yarmouth.
Brewster-based non-profit Sustainable Practices is leading the effort which would ban the purchase of plastic bottle beverages with town funds and prohibit outside vendors from selling plastic bottles on town property.
“What we are really advocating in this first step is that our tax dollars not be spent on things that we know are not a positive to either human health or the environment,” said Madhavi Venkatesan, the executive director of Sustainable Practices and an organizer of the effort.
The Provincetown Select Board has already adopted the measure as a matter of policy.
Sustainable Practices continues to work to get the measures on town ballots at town meetings this fall in Bourne, Eastham, Falmouth, Mashpee and Truro.
In Barnstable, a citizen’s group is working to build support with town representatives.
“Many people in the general public already have a strong feeling with regard to the use of plastic given all the news we see in terms of the ocean, the impact on animals, the impact on human health, and especially given that we live in an environmentally sensitive community,” Venkatesan said.
Venkatesan said supporters are optimistic that the articles will pass at town meetings.
Proponents will be promoting the ban over the next few weeks leading up to town meetings.
Venkatesan said they have received a 90 percent positive response rate from the community.
“About 10 percent of people perhaps are not necessarily buying in that this is a need and that we have to change our consumption behavior,” she said.
Venkatesan said they are trying to foster a new type of behavior in opposition to the convenience consumption mentality.
The first town to take up the article will be Wellfleet on April 22.
About CapeCod.com NewsCenter
