{"id":31317,"date":"2016-03-04T04:53:34","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T09:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brigantinenow.com\/?p=31317"},"modified":"2016-03-05T06:05:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-05T11:05:21","slug":"plastic-bag-brigantine-mayor-fights-green-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brigantinenow.com\/plastic-bag-brigantine-mayor-fights-green-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastic Bags and Politics, Stopping The Brigantine Green Team"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brigantine Mayor’s Bag-Man<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Efforts to make and keep Brigantine green and clean are stuck in political gridlock. What else is new. At issue: should Brigantine get serious about reducing use of harmful, single-use plastic bags?<\/p>\n

Beth Kwart, chairwoman of Surfrider\u2019s South Jersey Chapter wants Brigantine to institute a nominal 10 cent fee on single-use bags throughout the island to reduce litter. Council majority lead by Mayor Guenther & Councilman Simpson, along with Mike Brennan of the Brigantine Chamber….. say no.<\/p>\n

Brennan; a Real Estate agent, has testified that single-use plastic bags have minimal impact on the overall environment.<\/strong> Brennan, along with Mayor Guenther, both think that requiring a fee will hurt business, and some could be forced to leave the island. That stretch of an argument was quickly smacked down. Remember, the business keeps the fees, there is no cost to the business. It’s the consumer that bears the very small, symbolic cost of this eco-friendly initiative.<\/p>\n

Brigantine Chamber President Brennan doesn’t want to replace & reduce plastic bags, he wants to ‘properly dispose of them’.<\/strong> Brennan was chastised for that statement. It’s a well known fact that single use plastic bags do not break down naturally and typically end up in landfills. To date, there is no way to ‘properly dispose of them’.<\/p>\n

Brigantine Chamber President, Mike Brennan; Mayor Guenther’s Bag Man<\/h2>\n

Plastic bags are a real problem living on a windy island like Brigantine. Not only creating unsightly and non-biodegradable trash, but these plastics do great harm to marine mammals, sea birds and other coastal wildlife.<\/p>\n

It’s been noted that representatives from the MMSC; Marine Mammal Stranding Center have yet to make any statements about this issue. Could pressure to ‘stay out of it’ from Brigantine Councilman Simpson be the reason? We’d venture to say yes. The MMSC deals with a growing number of wildlife species that are injured or killed due to plastics in the ocean, air and back-bays.<\/p>\n

Mayor Guenther sided against The Green Team and used scare tactics.<\/strong> Guenther read a document he received from a retail council. It used questionable, borderline false language that was clearly meant to scare. Banning all plastics, imposing tax on consumers, impact on prices, ACME supermarket might leave town, prices will rise, etc..<\/p>\n

Listen to Brigantine Mayor Guenther Scare Tactics ><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n