SAUGUS — Town Meeting members will be talking trash.
Two articles, placed on the warrant through citizen’s petitions, will ask voters to reduce the amount of plastic used, and later incinerated, in town.
The bylaws, proposed by Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment President Ann Devlin, would reduce the use of plastic bags and foam food containers “to protect the town’s unique natural beauty and its water and natural resources.”
The Finance Committee recommended indefinite postponement of both articles.
Polystyrene contains dangerous substances which, when heated, release toxic chemicals may be carcinogenic, Devlin wrote in the proposal. The food and beverage containers form a significant portion of the solid waste that adds to the tonnage being incinerated, she said.
It is not biodegradable or compostable and is generally not recyclable. Devlin, who is also a Town Meeting member, is proposing that restaurants be prohibited from dispensing prepared food to customers in the foam containers.
Under the plastic bag reduction bylaw, single-use plastic check-out bags could no longer be distributed, used, or sold at checkout in Saugus. Reusable shopping bags would instead be promoted. The ban would not include dry cleaning, newspaper, produce, and meat bags.
The impacts of the production and use of the bags include “contributing to the potential death of aquatic and land animals through ingestion and entanglement; contributing to pollution of the natural environment; creating a burden to solid waste collection and recycling facilities; increasing the amount of plastic that is incinerated in Saugus; clogging drainage systems; and requiring the use of millions of barrels of crude oil nationally for their manufacture,” Devlin wrote in the proposal.
Both bylaws would be enforced by the Board of Health. A first offense would warrant a warning and the penalty for a second offense would be $50 per day. Each subsequent offense would be $100 per day.
Monday night, voters will start with eight articles on a Special Town Meeting warrant. Nineteen articles, including six citizen petitions, will be taken up during the annual meeting that follows.
The Finance Committee also recommended more than $1 million be borrowed to retrofit street lights to LED bulbs, $120,000 funding through certified free cash for repairs and the replacement of existing guard rails in several areas across town, and $150,000 from free cash to fund the completion of a town-side master plan.
The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
