How does Hilton Head feel about banning bags, foam coolers on beaches?

David Martin: not a big fan of polystyrene coolers.

“Personally, I believe they are pretty wasteful,” Martin said Tuesday.

“To me, it’s about like a cigarette butt,” he continued.

But his customers want them, he said — especially since his Piggly Wiggly is just steps from the beach on Hilton Head Island. So, during the summer, he sells about 600 of the white foam coolers a week.

His grocery store also goes through between 70,000 to 100,000 plastic bags — which cost much less than paper sacks — a week.

Still, he said, he’d be open to an idea similar to one that Folly Beach, near Charleston, is considering — one that would prohibit retailers from using plastic bags and would ban those bags, and polystyrene coolers, from the beach.

Folly Beach Mayor Tim Goodwin expects the town’s council to vote in favor of the ban, according to the Post and Courier. If it does, it would be the first seaside community in the state to prohibit the coolers — and polystyrene food-and-beverage containers — on the beach.

While other nearby beach towns — Isle of Palms and Tybee Island, respectively — have adopted or debated bag bans, Hilton Head has not.

Some community members would welcome that discussion.

Others, though, warn it might be premature.

Yea or nay?

Ward 1 Councilman Marc Grant said he’s not heard complaints from his constituents about coolers or bags. More research on the matter is needed, he said, for a ban to be considered.

Grant said he would not support a ban at this time. He worries about the impact on small businesses, and that some families cannot afford more expensive, durable coolers to take to the beach. Enforcement would also be difficult, he said.

Ward 3 Councilman David Ames hopes the upcoming “visioning process” will give community members a chance to discuss environmental issues.

“Hilton Head Island should be a leader in environmental stewardship,” he wrote in an email to The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette. “I am often reminded we can do better when I see foam cups and drink cans in the marsh and on the beach.”

Ames said he was aware of the ongoing discussions at Folly Beach and said he shared those concerns “from a variety of standpoints.” He declined to comment on whether he would support a similar ban on Hilton Head.

Attempts to reach other council members through either phone calls or emails were unsuccessful Tuesday.

Beth Castelli, owner of Coligny True Value Hardware, said she “could see supporting” a ban.

“We’d just have to re-think our bagging process,” she said, explaining her store offered paper bags, and that most of her customers — “six out of 10” — didn’t want a bag for their items at checkout.

As for the coolers, she might sell about 175 a year and said any revenue lost from them — or plastic bags — would not seriously impact her business.

Tourism economy

Polystyrene coolers and plastic bags can harm marine life, according to Amber Kuehn, manager of the Coastal Discovery Museum’s Sea Turtle Protection Project.

Baby sea turtles might eat pieces of the coolers that have broken off, she said. And leatherback turtles confuse plastic bags floating on the surface with jellyfish, which they prey on.

“Once they bite that bag, they’re committed,” Kuehn said, explaining the turtles have spikes in the back of their mouths designed to retain food. “They can’t spit it out.”

Plastic and foam products can impair animals’ breathing or cause an impaction in their bowels, she said.

“It’s hard to get anyone to listen when it comes to conversation,” she said, “because tourists’ convenience becomes more important than conservation.

“It’s because our community, our economy, is based on money from the tourists. ... So I understand that we need to support that but think there’s a happy medium where the tourists, if you approach them properly, also care about the environment,” she said. “There might be an advantage associated with that — it might draw people to the area.”

Raymond Wenig, executive director of Experience Green on Hilton Head, said tourists coming from other parts of the country can positively influence the local community’s outlook on conservation and sustainability.

“We lost a little bit of (Charles Fraser’s) edge, and I think we could regain it. I think it would be good for our image. The other point is that the popular movement is switching in favor of sustainability, and it would actually be good for us to become a leader again.”

For his part, Martin said he tries to encourage his customers at the Piggly Wiggly to buy the foil-lined, fabric coolers, which are slightly more expensive but more durable.

And he tries to “train” his regular patrons to bring their own reusable bags to his store.

Still, some people might want cheap coolers like others want cigarettes.

“There’s a lot of things I don’t personally like (that) I sell,” he said.

This story was originally published September 6, 2016 at 4:14 PM with the headline "How does Hilton Head feel about banning bags, foam coolers on beaches?."