Next Tuesday Island annual town meetings begin. Along with the usual list of warrant articles in each town there is one that will help us reduce waste and actually save us money while removing an increasing blight on our landscape. This is the one we have been hearing about all winter known as the single use plastic bag ban. The Vineyard Conservation Society with the help of high school students and other concerned citizens have had many information sessions throughout the Island to explain the issue.

Unfortunately voters in my town, Oak Bluffs, will not have the opportunity to join with the rest of the Island in supporting this one small step in reducing our ever increasing plastic waste stream. Due to pressure from a few local business owners, with exaggerated fears of having to do things a little differently and predicting dire consequences to their bottom lines instead of seeing the benefits to our Island community, the Oak Bluffs selectman removed the article from the warrant. They have said they will insist on a business owner’s committee to study the issue of check out bags and come up with their own plan.

I would like to encourage the other five towns voting over the next few weeks to approve the article banning these check out bags as the article is presented. This long overdue first step will help reduce the number of these bags we need to pay to properly dispose of and more importantly reduce the incidence of these bags escaping into our fragile environments, spoiling our views and having sometimes fatal consequences to wildlife.

I really think remembering to bring with us — wherever and whenever we shop — our own reuseable bags and reminding our visitors to do the same is a small inconvenience to help protect our amazing Island and keep it a place people want to return to. We have the added benefit of setting an example for our visitors to take back to their own communities around the world. Once a plastic bag gets into the ocean there is no telling where it will end up! Thank you for attending your town meeting and supporting this article.

Richard Toole

Oak Bluffs