GARWOOD — During Thursday night’s meeting of the Garwood mayor and council, Ordinance 24-09, which would require restaurants to only give out non-reusable food and beverage accessories if requested by the customer, was up for adoption.
During public comment, former Council President Russell Graham supported the ordinance, stating that it would help restaurant owners to save money by allowing them to make inventory last and build savings.
“I welcome the municipalities like ours in addressing it,” he said. “I hope that enough attention is drawn to it that the state will adopt it as others have done. It’s a cool thing.”
Marta Young from Clean Water Action, based in Montclair, attended the meeting and thanked the Garwood governing body for moving this ordinance forward. Ms. Young stated that she understood concerns about government overreach, but wanted to clarify that this is to remove excess litter and not take anything away from customers. She also noted that from what she has heard from other residents, some restaurants in Garwood already practice this.
“I’m happy to help out in any way I can with educating the public, with educating the town, but it sounds like that won’t be an issue. Like the bag ban, it took us all a little while to figure out, and then it wasn’t an issue,” she said.
Resident Bruce Paterson addressed the mayor and council, stating that he is for sustainability as long as there is common sense behind it, but believes there could be a better strategy and balance between environmental goals and practicality in what the ordinance asks. He also mentioned that he walked along some of the streets near local fast-food chain establishments like McDonald’s and Wendy’s, and a few pizza restaurants, and claimed only to have found several items that are restricted in the ordinance. Mr. Paterson urged officials to table it for now and review it so that it states that workers have to ask customers if they want a non-reusable food item.
“Have the establishments actually ask the people; don’t have the people ask the establishments,” he said. “That’s putting an inconvenience on them, and then they go home and are missing out on soy sauce.”
Resident Debbie Ledger also approached the governing body, stating that she participates in cleanups in the same areas Mr. Paterson visited. She claims she has picked up many straws, ketchup packets, napkins, etc., during these programs.
“The debris is significant. We used to pick up a lot of shopping bags, but we do not get a lot of those anymore, and my understanding of the ordinance was that you could have those things if you want them, so I’m not really sure what the dispute is,” she said.
Michele Capobianco echoed her statements from the last meeting that this should not be an ordinance just yet; rather, the issue should be the subject of a conversation with the community and restaurant owners.
“I don’t think any of us disagree that conservation and things like that are not a good idea,” she said, “but making decisions in a vacuum by not consulting and partnering with our local businesses, especially the large fast-food restaurants that this is going to affect the most, is not the way of going about this.”
Council President Vincent Kearney addressed concerns, stating that he frequented some local restaurants himself to discuss this ordinance, and that it was about half which knew about it before he mentioned anything. To combat this, Councilman Kearney said the borough would be working on giving informational flyers about the ordinance to restaurants.
“I don’t think the goal was to come out of the gate sprinkling summonses around the town,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be a conversation piece before it moves into a hardcore enforcement piece. I don’t think that was anybody’s intention up here.”
Ordinance 24-09 passed, with Councilwoman Karina Boto, Council President Kearney, Councilman Marc Lazarow, and Councilwoman Clarissa Nolde voting yes and Councilwoman Kimberly Salmon voting no. Councilman Sean Foley was not in attendance at Thursday night’s meeting to cast a vote.
