It has been approved by the City Council of Port Townsend to purchase almost ten thousand reusable grocery bags and to distribute them in the community. Half of these bags will be given for free to the city’s residents and the other half’s distribution plan is yet to be decided by the City Council. The distribution of these totes will happen at the same time when the ban on single-use plastic bags will be imposed all over the city.
It is decided that the ban will come into effect on the 1st of November, wherein all the grocery stores and other retailers have to stop offering disposable plastic bags to their shoppers. The bag ban was unanimously approved by the Council members in July, and is considered to be the only such law to be imposed ad approved in the north Olympic Peninsula.
Sixth Washington City
After the City Council members decided to impose the ban and instead offer eco-friendly wholesale reusable bags, Port Townsend is listed as the 6th Washington city to pass the ordinance. The other cities that have imposed a similar ordinance include Bellingham, Bainbridge Island, Edmonds, Mukilteo, Issaquah and Seattle. Out of all the Council members, five voted in favor of investing in reusable totes, while one of the members opposed.
Promotional reusable bags will be divided in distribution
Five thousand of these bags will be given to residents and will be delivered door to door, and will also be available at the City Hall and the other areas. However, the distribution of the rest of the 10000 bags is to be decided by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, along with the Port Townsend Main Street program.
Even though there is no plan regarding the rest of the bags’ distribution, they will most likely be given to local retail stores. Grocery and other stores can then sell these wholesale reusable bags for a certain price. All these bags will cost the city about $10,700, which will be paid though an interfund loan. The purchase amount will be taken from a general fund and will be reimbursed from a source, which is yet to be determined.
Various proposals to fund the program
The original proposal was to get the money for these bags from trash-collection fees, but this was criticized by the council members as they felt that the fees needed to be raised from different sources. Another proposal suggests the use of the lodging tax fund for buying the reusable shopping bags. Port Townsend has some time on its hands to arrange the funds before investing in the bags.
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