Last week’s assembly meeting delivered a certain poetic justice for those who want plastic shopping bags in town. 

The Haines Borough Assembly decided against a stricter plastic bag regulation, but only after hearing one last installment in weeks of public debate on the issue.

And while one generally expects the unexpected at assembly meetings, it might be a first, that the two sides of this debate opened in rhyme and verse. 

Opening the discussion was Haines Friends of Recycling board chair Melissa Aronson, who read a poem titled “My Life as a Plastic Bag,” discussing the path of a plastic bag from oil pipeline to litter. 

Rusty Compass owner Lee Robinson followed with what he said was a “lighthearted” contribution to the conversation: an AI-generated-on-the-spot poem that closed with the line, “from ground to gadget, a story so fine / from oil to plastic, a triumph divine.”

Like the unusual debate, the way the issue arrived at the assembly was somewhat convoluted: The assembly first passed legislation in 2018 intending to ban “single-use, non-compostable plastic shopping bags.” But the bags never disappeared, and in recent weeks many argued the Olerud’s bags could be reused for other purposes — as trash bags, for instance — and were therefore not covered by the ban. 

In response, the assembly’s commerce committee drafted new wording for the ban that would more definitively prohibit the plastic shopping bags. 

In spite of what the weeks of discussion might suggest, many said the plastic bag issue was not actually a top priority — including both Aronson and Robinson. 

Aronson said she felt it was important to weigh in, given what she saw as the negative impact of plastic pollution on the valley, but said she was far more focused on other local recycling projects, like Friends of Recycling’s new facility on Third Avenue.  

Robinson, for his part, said he attended the assembly meeting to follow a completely different issue. He decided to speak up on the plastic bags while there because of what he felt it said about broader questions about local governance. 

That was a consistent theme: the issue seemed to have just as much symbolic power as perceived on-the-ground impact. 

“I think it’s a small thing, and of course I don’t like seeing Rusty Compass cups floating around town,” Robinson said this week. “But I’m not in favor of ratcheting up government regulation in our small town.” 

A number of others were with Robinson, saying the litter problem would be better addressed with “personal responsibility,” rather than new restrictions. 

Assembly member Cheryl Stickler called the ban an “example of government overreach,” and Olerud’s part-owner Doug Olerud said it would “punish the responsible majority for the carelessness of the few.” 

Olerud also argued that when taking the entire production chain into account, thin plastic bags had no more environmental impact than popular alternatives. Plus, he said after the meeting, 

On the other end of things was assembly member Eben Sargent, who said the issue was a matter of enforcing government legislation and procedures in general beyond just the specific legislation at hand. 

“I’m sure all the business owners in this community are well aware of the process to change code when we don’t feel like our code is well serving us, and that’s to get the assembly or a board to suggest an ordinance, and then build support for that ordinance, and walk it through the steps,” Sargent said. “That step was not taken. A path of noncompliance was taken.”

“I thought this could have been resolved with a letter from the manager with enforcement of our existing ordinance,” he added. 

Then there was framing of the bag ban as an issue of accessibility, and respect for elders. 

“As people age and their abilities become more and more limited, honor, honor them,” Stickler said, forcefully repeating the word honor for emphasis. “Preserve the dignity of allowing them to carry out groceries in a bag with handles.”

Assembly member Craig Loomis had a counterpoint, saying he’d vote for the ban out of respect for the other end of the spectrum — the town’s youth.

The original 2018 ordinance had been an initiative from Haines’ then sixth-grade class. One of those sixth graders, Camelia Bell, now an environmental science student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, testified in favor of the ban last week. 

“I’m in favor of this just because of what Ms. Bell said,” Loomis said. “I’m tired of selling this planet to old people, when we got a young generation that wants to save this place, and we’re gonna tell them no? I’m going to give her a yes.” 

Loomis and Sargent ended up being the two votes in favor of tightening the ban. 

Out of the wide-ranging conversation, there may actually be common ground on the actual issue at hand. 

Key stakeholders said they’d be willing to work toward some middle ground, including Olerud and Aronson. After the meeting, Aronson proposed a borough initiative to give out or sell reusable shopping bags that might also appeal to tourists. 

“The overregulation question, it’s all a matter of philosophy,” she said. “That’s why I’d like to propose moving forward with something that would be positive, like these organic cloth bags.” 

“Rather than getting into an adversarial situation, if all the different stakeholders can work together, we can come to a positive solution,” Aronson said. 

Meanwhile, Moosehorn Laundry owner Taylor Ashton said she’d be willing to give out reusable bags in lieu of a ban, and potentially help ship plastic bags to out-of-town facilities where they could be recycled.

Preserving the plastic bag status quo might also be a business boon for some stores: Olerud said after the meeting that paper bags would be four times as expensive as the plastic bags currently used. 

Even so, and even with seemingly an allowance in borough policy for plastic bags, the IGA across Main Street looks like it will continue offering only paper. 

IGA manager Kevin Shove said the store got rid of plastic bags on Earth Day around 20 years ago because of concerns about litter. “If you got people to not litter it wouldn’t be a problem,” Shove said. “But that’s how it is, and it was unsightly, and it’s been that way ever since.”