'Green' campaign moves forward in Red Bank Students to participate in a borough-wide door hanger campaign BY MELISSA KARSH Staff Writer RED BANK - "When you pack, use a sack" in Red Bank. That is the new slogan for the borough's much-talked-about plastic bag initiative. Councilwoman Kathy Horgan unveiled the winning slogan and graphic at the April 28 Red Bank council meeting. "We knew that we wanted to do an environmentally [conscious] communitywide type of project. We knew it would be on plastic bags but we didn't know what format it would take," said Horgan, who chairs the Education and Technology Committee. "We decided it would be a door hanger." At the meeting, Horgan displayed the door hanger design, which is part of the district-wide student project to decrease the number of plastic bags in the borough. She said both the winning slogan and graphic were submitted by students from the Red Bank Charter School but that the initiative is a joint effort between all the borough schools both public and private, the Education and Technology Committee and the Environmental Commission (EC), which is chaired by Councilwoman Mary-Grace Cangemi. "Once the door hanger is printed the week of May 19, the schools are going to divide up the town and they're going to canvas the entire town, visiting every household, every business to inform them [about plastic bags.] They're going to be informing everybody about reducing, reusing and recycling plastic bags," said Horgan. Cangemi said the EC has already or- dered 1,000 reusable tote bags adorned with the borough's logo to be given out as part of the door hanger campaign. "Part of what this door hanger campaign will be to inform people," said Cangemi, adding, "You give us five of your plastic bags and you commit to using a reusable bag instead and you will get a really nice reusable bag with the Red Bank logo on it." Cangemi said the downtown business alliance Red Bank RiverCenter would sponsor the campaign. "This is actually taking action. Getting plastic bags out of people's hands, putting them in the recycling stream and then going ahead and [using] the reusable bags," said Cangemi at the meeting. She added, "[It was a] great experience to have our schools working together with some of our government agencies." On March 10, the Borough Council adopted a plastic bag ordinance that was first proposed by Councilman Michael R. DuPont. The ordinance, which was introduced March 6, will not come into full effect until 2009. According to the ordinance, all stores that offer noncompostable or nonrecyclable bags or those that offer recyclable bags shall provide containers or bins for the disposal of such items. As for the borough-wide "when you pack, use a sack" campaign, Councilwoman Sharon Lee said there are a few locations to recycle plastic bags in the borough. Lee, who chairs the Public Utilities committee, said for residents to place plastic bags in receptacles located at the Red Bank Primary, Middle School and Charter Schools, St. James Elementary School, the Red Bank Municipal building, the Red Bank Senior Center and the Department of Public Utilities office.