Public Participation

Transcript (~9 min @ 0:55)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 0:54 Speaker 1: indivisible with liberty and justice for all mr president i make a motion to open the floor for public participation second alderman mortimer moves that we commence public participation the motion is seconded by alderman Zwirko on the motion all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion passes this is the portion of our meeting where any member of the public who is present and wishes to speak on any order that is on our agenda for this evening can come forward to the table at the center of the room identify themselves and speak relative to that order is there anybody

▶ 1:37 Speaker 1: who wishes to be heard please come forward okay i'm doing my best this is the portion of our meeting where any member of the well okay anybody who wishes to come forward and speak on any item that is on our agenda please come forward to the table in the center of the room and identify themselves sir hello i'm philip herman from 83 east foster street in melrose and i like to speak about the use of plastic bags in our town and i i just like to give which a personal example probably that all of us have gone through when you go to shore supermarket and you see a person in front of you with 20 plastic bags in their shopping cart, double bagged or even triple bagged sometimes. And if you take a look at, think about say just 20 bags, an individual used in one year

▶ 2:40 Speaker 1: say one thousand bags say in their lifetime they'll use like say sixty thousand bags and if you just roughly multiply that out say with the say twenty thousand people we have in our town you're talking about twenty million bags used in just one year in our town and you know where do these bags go do you think these people are storing 20 million bags in their homes no they go into the garbage and then we have to pay

▶ 3:13 Speaker 1: the extra taxes for that garbage even worse though some people put it in their recycling bins and I don't know if any of you have been down to the recycling plant but those plastic bags get caught into their shredders and they have to

▶ 3:32 Speaker 1: stop their whole operation and so here we have two big problems bags going into trash and into recycling and you know where we're behind a lot of the towns in Massachusetts there's over 60 towns or so that have already banned plastic bags and you know I think about where did the plastic bags come from they come from petroleum so where do we get up petroleum we do things like fracking out west even upstate New York they wanted to do fracking to get more petroleum we have wars we go to like Desert Storm one Desert Storm two people die so we could get more petroleum I think we can make a dent in the amount of petroleum we use in this country if we start discounting or making less use of plastic bags thank you thank you sir

▶ 4:38 Speaker 1: anyone else who wishes to speak sir this is short um my name is george stubbs uh and i've been a resident of i'm at 111 warwick road i've been a resident of melrose for about 31 years now and i come before the board today in order to express my support for a proposed ordinance on the published agenda for introduction this evening that would limit the distribution and use of thin film plastic bags in our city this board has already heard estimates the effect that melrose residents collectively use some nine million plastic bags annually and that the average grocery store distributes upwards of 2.6 million plastic bags per year while these are simply numbers and it can be difficult to know what they mean out of context it is becoming clear every day that the fossil fuel intensive production of these bags and the improper disposal of a large percentage of them pose real harm to public health and the environment. There is of course the unsightliness of plastic bags hanging from our city's trees, drifting into our yards, and littering our open spaces and waterways. What I find more insidious, however, is the fate of these plastic bags and other types of discarded plastic products in the environment. Specifically, recent scientific studies have shown that microscopic plastic fibers, the breakdown products of plastics, are returning up the food chain and through the hydrological cycle to invade our bodies. Just to take one example, an article published in September of this year by Orb Media reported the results of a study conducted by Orb Media in collaboration with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, showing that previously undetected levels of plastic particles are contaminating the tap water of cities around the world. The article said, quote, microscopic plastic fibers are flowing out of taps from New York to New Delhi, from the halls of the U.S. Capitol to the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda. Women, children, men, and babies are consuming plastic with every glass of water, unquote. In all, more than 80 percent of the water samples collected by the researchers on five continents tested positive for the presence of microscopic plastic fibers. It is not yet entirely clear what this finding may mean for our health. What we do know, however, is that microscopic plastic fibers absorb toxic chemicals and heavy metals that have been linked to cancer, developmental problems, and other forms of health impairment. As the Orb Media article points out, microplastics can be small enough to migrate through the intestinal wall and travel to lymph nodes, for example. It is for this reason and others that I urge the City of Melrose to join many other Massachusetts cities and towns in limiting the use of single-use plastic bags. I am fully confident that the use of alternatives, such as reusable cloth and canvas bags, does not represent erosion in our standard of living. On the contrary, it leads us down the road towards a more sustainable, healthy, and vibrant community thank you thank you sir anyone else who wishes to speak please come forward

▶ 7:55 Speaker 3: good evening gina mcneil 97 maple street um first of all i want to say how deeply appreciative i am to the board for working with the recycling committee over the course of the last year meeting with us having such thoughtful conversations as individuals and inviting the recycling committee to present on an informational basis to the board on august 21st on the same issue I'll keep my remarks brief as well but I wanted to share with you today that we received a letter from the Mass Audubon advocacy departments as a letter of support for the ordinance that's been proposed in Melrose to address recyclable and reusable bags in our community I'll submit the full letter for the public record but I did want to say how honored we are, and I think it's a sign of the importance of this issue, that Mass Audubon, which is one of the oldest and most respected environmental advocacy organizations in the Commonwealth, if not in the nation, has come out to support these ordinances and laws generally and specifically reviewed the ordinance proposed for Melrose and provided an official letter of support. So with that, I will provide this letter to the clerk. Thank you.

▶ 9:17 Speaker 1: you anyone else who wishes to address the board on this or any other issue that's before us this

▶ 9:24 Peter D. Mortimer: evening motion to close public participation mr president second alderman mortimer moves to

▶ 9:28 Speaker 1: conclude public participation the motion is seconded by alderman forbes on the motion all those in favor anyone opposed motion passes public participation is hereby concluded i would like to point out that as with all of our meetings this meeting is being videotaped and will be rebroadcast on Melrose Cable Television and various other places in compliance with the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. Alderman Lemmerman, I understand you have a point of personal privilege relative to some visiting dignitaries that we