Southampton Village officials have determined that plastic bags being utilized by the newly opened Citarella market on Hampton Road comply with the municipality’s plastic bag ban, thanks to the thickness of the plastic they are made with.
This week, Southampton Village Mayor Mark Epley said that, after investigation, members of the committee Southampton Advocates for the Environment, or SAVE, determined that the plastic used for the bags is 3 mils thick, exceeding the 2.2-mil requirement for plastic bags in the village.
Although the bags are allowed, the village has asked the store to consider a different wrapping material for sandwiches and wraps, which is a heavy, non-recyclable material that some consider worse than the plastic grocery bags targeted by the ban. However, the packaging is not included in the village’s ban, and the mayor said he not heard back from the store.
The village’s plastic bag ban went into effect in November 2011 after being approved earlier that year. The SAVE committee lobbied for the ban to encourage the use of reusable checkout bags.
Erin McKinley on May 28, 2014