Northampton City Council OKs new plastics regs for restaurants, retail businesses
Northampton City Hall GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
Published: 1/22/2021 2:22:06 PM
NORTHAMPTON The City Council approved an ordinance Thursday that will cut down on plastic use by restaurants and retail businesses.
“I just see this as the beginning of an exciting conversation about what other climate healing steps we can take right here in our community,” said Ward 7 City Councilor Rachel Maiore, who co-sponsored the ordinance with at-large Councilor William Dwight and the mayor’s Youth Commission.
The ordinance, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022, will require restaurants to stop giving customers food in disposable containers made of Styrofoam or several kinds of plastic, including polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. Containers also must be recyclable. It also requires restaurants and retail businesses to use disposable ware such as utensils and cups that
Northampton police review panel submits initial report
Northampton Police Station GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
Published: 1/11/2021 8:06:33 PM
NORTHAMPTON If your sibling was being evicted from their apartment, how would you want them to be helped?
Daniel Cannity, chairman of the Northampton Policing Review Commission, posed the question to the City Council on Thursday evening.
“By a police officer or by a caseworker who can assist them with obtaining alternate housing?” he said, noting that he was quoting commission member Booker Bush. “If a community has nothing else to offer, the police become the answer.”
Cannity was presenting the commission’s 29-page preliminary report, which details the work that its subcommittees Alternatives to Policing, Policies and Services, and Spending and Contracts has done so far to study the Northampton Police Department and recommend reforms.
Northampton takes aim at plastic use by restaurants, retail businesses
Styrofoam containers. Takeout containers. ARMSTRONG STUDIOS
Northampton City Hall GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
Published: 1/12/2021 2:47:34 PM
NORTHAMPTON Six years after passing a ban on single-use plastic bags, the city is moving ahead with regulations to curb plastic use at restaurants and retail businesses.
Taking its lead from a younger generation, the City Council last week unanimously approved on first reading an ordinance crafted by the Mayor’s Youth Commission that would require restaurants to stop giving customers food in disposable containers made of Styrofoam or several kinds of plastic, including polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. Containers also must be recyclable. Two votes are required to make the ordinance final.