Melanie Matts, Community Journalist, Granite State News Collaborative and Seacoast Media

EXETER — The town's Select Board has dropped plans to move forward with a town-wide policy to ban the distribution of single-use plastics on town property and instead will leave it in the hands of voters.

The board made the decision last week after members of the town's Sustainability Advisory Committee filed a citizen's petition to have the town adopt an ordinance instead at the March 14 Town Meeting. The committee believes an ordinance to ban the distribution of single-use disposable plastics — such as bottles, containers, and straws — on town-owned property would have more teeth than just a policy.

“There is a full-blown climate crisis and plastic consumption is one of the most critical issues,” said Sustainability Advisory Committee member Christopher Zigmont. "We felt we didn’t have time to wait for a slow-roll approach.”

The proposed ordinance on the ballot mirrors the one the Select Board were reviewing and incorporated some of the changes they had recommended.

The ordinance would apply to town-owned properties like Town Hall and Recreation Park and permitted events on town property, like farmers markets and the music festivals at Swasey Parkway.

Prohibited single-use disposables include plastic bags, plastic food service bags (excluding trash bags) and polystyrene containers such as Styrofoam cups. The ordinance carves out exemptions for single-use compostable food service products, packaging required for food safety reasons (such as wrapping around meats, seafood, lettuce or other perishable products) and products where alternatives do not exist.

It also exempts emergency responders and human service nonprofits like Meals on Wheels — which relies heavily on single-use plastics — and gives Parks and Recreation time to find alternatives for items they sell in the concession stands.

The ordinance, according to the committee, does not prohibit individuals from using and consuming prohibited containers brought to town property for personal consumption.

How would the ordinance be enforced?

One of the main concerns of the Select Board — and why they wanted to start out with a policy — regarded enforcement and who would oversee and monitor violations.

Board Chairman Niko Papakonstantis said at the last meeting that it was “just not practical,” for a town employee to monitor events on weekends.

Zigmont said that if the ordinance is passed in March, the goal for the Sustainability Advisory Committee in 2023 will be to work with the communications committee and the town of Exeter to create a “communication mechanism” that makes sure everyone is aware of it.

The proposed ordinance does not include fines for violations. Instead, reports of non-compliance will be directed to the town's conservation and sustainability planner, who then will work with the permittee or town department to find replacement products.

Zigmont said a second violation would entail a written warning and further assistance in counseling to try and find alternative products.

In the case of continued violation, Zigmont said they would be subject to the “revocation,” or “non-approval” for future permits.

Select Board member Lovey Roundtree Oliff said at the Jan 30 Select Board meeting that she is less concerned with “how we police it,” but more with providing resources for all of the “pieces of the puzzle” to fall in place for support.

“I have, I guess, a lot of faith in the community members that if we propose something that's supposed to prolong our planet, our lives, the environment, that at baseline, we have to make an assumption that majority of people are going to do the right thing,” she said.

Voters support ordinance at the deliberative session

A number of residents spoke in favor of the ordinance during the deliberative session, or the first half of Town Meeting.

Members of the Sustainability Advisory Committee said the ordinance was a first step in addressing the plastic pollution in the environment. Plastic can only downcycled, the committee noted, and 88% of every piece of plastic made still exists.

A town-wide ban is currently not a possibility, according to officials, because the state Legislature has not given cities and towns the authority to enact one.

“I want to say thank you for putting this together,” said Darius Thompson, Swasey Parkway trustee. “We only have one planet, and we need to take care of it, so it just makes sense.”

Another questioned why the Select Board did not just adopt the town ordinance.

“This article is a good kick in the pants for all of us, and a source of embarrassment that occurs to me for our town,” said Doug Flockhart. “Why the heck does it take a warrant article to get our Select Board to do what they should’ve done already?”

Papakonstantis previously stated the board overwhelmingly supported the initiative but wanted to move forward with a policy to work out any issues, like enforcement, before adopting it as a town ordinance.

Other changes the board and town counsel wanted to see included in the policy was language that clearly states town streets are excluded from the proposed ban. They also wanted more time for town departments to distribute any remaining inventory they may have. The ordinance gives nine months but the policy the Select Board was considering gave a full year.

The Select Board decided to hold off on adopting the policy because if voters approve the ordinance at Town Meeting, it will supersede the policy.

“I think it's very important for the public to understand that we're not against this, and we're just trying to find ways that we need to find as a Select Board to make it work,” Select Board member Nancy Belanger said at the Jan. 30 meeting.

This article was produced as part of The Community Journalism Project and is being shared with partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information on the project visitwww.collaborativenh.org/community-journalism-project