Mount Pleasant Magazine May/June 2018

47 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.BestOfMP.com feature subject to fines of up to $200, $350 and $500 for the next three violations. After that, they could lose their business license. Council members agreed that they would tweak the law and make it easier to understand long before it goes into effect. “We need to clean it up sooner rather than later so everyone has as much lead time as possible and so everyone knows what it says,” Mayor Will Haynie commented. “I think we can do it in 30 to 60 days if we put our nose to the grindstone.” Kathy Landing was the only Council member voting against the ban, pointing out that she preferred a voluntary plan. She also said that the ordinance contains confusing language and that “there’s a lot of things to be asking businesses and consumers to get used to at one time.” She said the law is “too sweeping, disorganized, poorly written and wasn’t introduced to the business community properly.” At the April 10 meeting, Landing presented her own voluntary plan, Mount Pleasant Ecofriendly Partners, which would have provided incentives for businesses to stop using plastics and instead turn to products that are friendlier to the environment. Businesses also would have had the opportunity to partner with the town by helping to clean up marshes, creeks, roads and highways and establishing recycling facilities and composting areas. “If we care about the environment, why are we going to wait a whole year?” Landing asked. “If you’re doing something, why not do it right away?” “If we could show how this can be done through grass- roots efforts, we could become a model for how this could work throughout the country,” she added. Owens later took issue with Landing’s contention that local businesses were not informed about his proposal. He said he has met with representatives of several companies who are looking forward to the law going into effect in 2019. “This was the most well-vetted legislation to come out of Mount Pleasant in recent history,” he said. “It was discussed at five committee meetings and three Council meetings.” “But Kathy had good intentions. She loves this town and wants what’s best for it,” he added. Owens said he has been working on the ordinance for three years, since he ran for the Council for the first time in 2015. He said he discussed his plan with local businesses and asked them what kind of time frame they needed to use up their current inventory of plastic products, and he pointed out that some of them already had a process in place when the issue first was presented to the Council at its February meeting. Owens and Haynie agreed that the ordinance was necessary to reduce the amount of plastic that has been ending up in the area’s marshes and waterways. “Research I have seen indicates that voluntary plans do not have the desired effect to protect your natural resources,” the mayor said. “The main thing is that people know that Styrofoam and single-use plastic bags are not good for the environment of the marshes that surround the town of Mount Pleasant on three sides.” The March and April Council meetings were well-