PORT TOWNSEND — A petition to mobilize support for a Port Townsend ban of plastic shopping bags now has the active support of more than 10 percent of city residents, petition sponsors say.
“At the close of the Earth Day event on Saturday, we had gathered more than 1,087 signatures,” said Jude Rubin, who has gathered many of those signatures dressed as a “bag monster” in a costume made of 500 plastic bags.
“In a town of only 9,000, that seems like pretty big news,” she added.
The petition, directed to the Port Townsend City Council, seeks a ban on disposable plastic bags for environmental reasons.
“We don’t need them, they’re hard to recycle, and many of them end up polluting the Sound and putting wildlife at risk,” the petition says.
“Nothing we use for a few minutes should end up in the belly of a whale,” it continues. “Please ban disposable plastic shopping bags.”
The Port Townsend City Council Special Projects Committee will discuss the ban at 4 p.m. Wednesday, May 9, in council chambers, 540 Water St.
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The committee will make a recommendation to the City Council.
Ordinances in other cities have banned plastic shopping bags with handles while lawn and garbage bags are not effected.
City Manager David Timmons said that a plastic bag ban would have to include a strategy for enforcing it.
Rubin has made four appearances so far as the bag monster, two in front of the city council and two at the Port Townsend Farmers Market.
The 500 plastic bags of the costume, which she borrowed from the Seattle Bag Monster group, is intended to represent the number of bags used by one person in a calendar year.
During her presentations, Rubin has stayed in character as a bag monster, denigrating the position of ecologists and saying that the destruction of wildlife and the environment is no big deal.
Rubin said that no one has missed the irony.
“People take one look at me and they have one of two reactions,” she said.
“Either their jaw drops and they are speechless, or they come up to me and say ‘What can I do? Where can I sign?’”
Petitions are available at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center in Fort Worden State Park.
Rubin said that ban supporters also can write the city of Port Townsend at 250 Madison St., or email to the City Council at CityCouncil@cityofpt.us.
Rubin said her appearances as the bag monster underscores the issue with a sense of humor, which makes the message more poignant than if it were presented in a conventional setting.
“If you just come up to someone in public to talk about an issue, a lot of times they will just turn away,” she said.
“When they talk to the bag monster they smile, and laugh and actually have a conversation about the issue.”
Rubin would not disclose when the monster’s next appearance will be.
Cities in the state that have adopted bans are Bainbridge Island, Bellingham, Edmonds, Mukilteo and Seattle.
Seattle’s ban begins July 1, while Bainbridge Island’s ban begins in November.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
