Aside from their usually mundane and routine legislative schedules, Portsmouth City Council sometimes focuses on pet projects. City Council members are now concerned about a blight the city faces with plastic bags. Their goal is to eradicate them.
One slight hiccup in the current wording of the proposed legislation. It says, “discarded disposable hags” are a major source of litter, pollute our open spaces, harm, and kill wildlife, clog storm drains resulting in localized flooding, and end up as debris in our neighborhoods and waterways. and contributes to blight.
This is shocking. The hags of old were kept for up to 50 or 60 years.
Lyvette Barnes-Mosley, 4th Ward Councilperson, expressed her concern about littering, saying she has observed a larger problem with plastic bottles. There’s more trash picked up by Mosley than the work release program.
In the proposed legislation, we are also reminded that China has implemented its “National Sword” policy, which prohibits them from accepting twenty-four types of recycled waste including disposable plastic bags.
The proposed ordinance carries a penalty. The “Disposable Plastic Bag Ban” has teeth.
Failure to comply with the ordinance will result in a verbal warning for the first offense, a $100 civil fine for the second offense, and a $500 fine for subsequent infractions. “A separate violation shall be deemed committed each day during or on which a violation or noncompliance occurs or continues.”
It is Portsmouth Code Enforcement’s responsibility to enforce this law strictly. Appeals can be made to the City Nuisance Board. A second appeal can also be filed with the Scioto County Common Pleas Court.
DORA’s outdoor drinking program will not be affected by the plastic cups it purchased and used.
