Somerville may join the growing list of Commonwealth cities and towns that ban or restrict the use of plastic bags, and neither city officials nor most of those questioned in the streets recently oppose the idea. The proposal, promoted by Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz for years, was discussed at a May 27 meeting of the Environment and Energy Special Committee of the Board of Aldermen. Assistant City Solicitor Matthew Buckley told Gewirtz and Ward 7 Alderman Katjana Ballatyne, chair of the committee, that his office sees no problem with a ban. The full story is shown below.

New trash cans, tighter regulations on dumpsters, financial aid for rat-ridden households and an experimental birth control bait are all being rolled out in the city’s war on rats.“With the ‘War on Rats’ we are looking to use a multiple-layered strategy. One is to provide more uniform trash enforcement, both for residential trash and commercial trash,” Paulette Renault-Caragianes, Director of the city’s Health Department, told the Somerville Neighborhood News as she demonstrated how the new trash bins work.

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