WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Health on Monday unanimously recommended the annual town meeting approve articles that would amend the town's existing plastic bag ordinance and ban the land application of materials derived from sewage sludge.

 

Stephanie Boyd, author of Article 19 on the town meeting warrant to prevent the use of biosolids as soil amendments, and Susan Abrams, author of Article 20 on the reduction of single-use bags, each addressed the board at its monthly meeting.

 

The biosolid and plastic bag bylaws are two of three that were placed on the warrant for the May 19 meeting by way of citizens' petition.

 

Earlier this month, the Select Board voted to recommend town meeting approve two of the three: the biosolids bylaw and one that would ban the use of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs). But the elected board declined to recommend passage of the article that seeks to amend a 2015 bylaw on single-use bags, finding that it needed more time to evaluate the complicated article.

 

On Monday, Abrams acknowledged its lack of clarity.

 

"The way I wrote the article was very confusing," Abrams said. "What this petition actually is is a very small change to the town's existing plastic bag regulation passed in 2015. When towns were doing that, there were a lot of loopholes and exceptions because people were nervous about the idea of doing this.

 

"Ten years later, we've discovered that, A) people are doing well with it, the communities are thriving and, in fact, some of the loopholes, as discovered by [the California Public Interest Research Group] in a 2024 study, one loophole which allows thicker plastic bags as considered 'reusable' bag — they're not getting reused and, in fact, are increasing the amount of plastic waste."