This is the first in a semester-long series of stories on Brookline, Massachusetts.

On a Tuesday night last November in the Brookline High School Auditorium, Town Meeting members overwhelmingly voted to ban the use of disposable polystyrene, more commonly known as Styrofoam, in Brookline.  The following evening, the special Town Meeting voted another large margin to prohibit disposable polyethylene plastic bags, the kind found in supermarkets and drug stores – and sometimes in the branches of trees and bushes on Saint Mary Street.

Neither synthetic product is readily biodegradable.  They litter streets and bodies of water across the country.  Polyethylene plastic bags can suffocate marine life that mistakes them for food.  When Styrofoam is incinerated it releases carcinogens into the atmosphere.

Approximately 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United States each year, according to the EPA. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation reported that Americans throw away 25 million Styrofoam cups on average each year.

“I hate polystyrene,” said Frank Smizik, a State Representative of Brookline, over the phone Monday.  “That stuff is a pain in the neck to get rid of.  The plastic is also costly, damaging, and we have to get away from it.”

Both new ordinances are expected to go live in December.  That deadline hinges on Brookline’s Town Selectman figuring out precisely how to implement the changes in the coming months.

“Oddly enough there are a couple situations where plastic bags are required,” said Betsy Dewitt, Chair of the Board of Selectman, in a meeting room at Brookline Town Hall on Monday.  “For example if you buy fresh meat, you’re supposed to take it away in a plastic bag.”

And despite the 169-27 decision to ban Styrofoam, and the 142-53 vote to ban disposable plastic checkout bags, Town Clerk Patrick Ward recognizes the potential for opposition.

“What we filed was fairly controversial for a lot of people,” said Ward in an interview last month.  “I’m sure trade associations will question it and file briefs with the Attorney General.”

The Board of Selectman has opted to exclude from the plastic bag ban businesses that occupy 2500 square feet or less, so the businesses most affected by the amendment will be the supermarkets and big-box stores.  In Brookline that means Trader Joe’s, CVS, Walgreens, Stop & Shop and Star Market.  The Selectmen are setting up meetings with representatives of those stores to talk about what to do and how to do it.

The Brookline Health Department will work with the Selectmen to carry out the Styrofoam and plastic bag legislation.  But the problem with plastic exists outside the scope of the health department or the town government.  Residents who shop in Boston, Newton or anywhere outside Brookline can bring their plastic bags back to town and turn them into Brookline refuse.

“It really takes state regulation,” said Dewitt.  “It hardly makes sense on a town by town basis.  It’s symbolic more than it’s going to make any real difference.  We need to talk to our network of municipalities and get them on board to get the attention of the legislature.”

Support may come soon.  In late January Boston.com’s Brock Parker reported that the Cambridge City Council requested the city draft an ordinance outlining a plan to ban plastic bags.  In late January Boston.com’s Brock Parker reported that the Cambridge City Council requested the city draft an ordinance outlining a plan to ban plastic bags.  The Newton Board of Alderman has discussed charging a fee for certain single-use shopping bags and outlawing Styrofoam altogether, according to Newton Patch’s Melanie Graham.  In his State of the City speech this month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Styrofoam “environmentally destructive” and cited a $20 increase per ton in recycling the compound.  On the other side of the country, the Boulder, Colorado City Council has already enacted a 10-cent fee for disposable grocery bags and support is growing for an ordinance targeting Styrofoam.

“It’s easier to go town to town with this than to the state legislator,” said Dewitt, “because the legislator is more vulnerable to the lobbying of the retail people.”

Dewitt and other members of the Board of Selectman will meet with the health department and the Brookline Department of Public Works in a few weeks to discuss implementation strategies.