Michael B. Croci

Framingham BYOBag Team

In February of 2016 my friend Ken came to a Transition Framingham meeting and mentioned that he was sponsoring an article in Framingham Town Meeting to ban thin film plastic bags at retail stores. He asked for some help and myself and another friend Brigitte raised our hands. Over the next 3 months the 3 of us put together a comprehensive campaign to educate our Town Meeting members on what we were doing and why we were doing it. We were invited to various meetings throughout town and made our case at each one of them. I delivered a 10 minute presentation at Town Meeting in May and a 2 hour conversation about the bylaw ensued. We needed 51% of the vote to pass the article and ended up with 70%. The bylaw goes into effect on January 1st, 2018.

Since passing the article in Town Meeting we have formed the Framingham BYOBag team to educate citizens and businesses about the upcoming bylaw change. We have a monthly meeting with the Town Manager, Board of Selectman, Chamber of Commerce, and DPW where we work together to ensure a smooth transition during the time of the bylaw change for the purposes of shifting consumer behavior to using their own reusable shopping bags. Through extensive marketing campaigns we feel confident that the transition will be as smooth as possible.

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