Endangered New Jersey: Single-use Plastic Bag Ban Goes Into Effect May 4

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Single-use Plastic Bag Ban Goes Into Effect May 4

We've been hearing about it for a long time. Ban plastic! Ban single-use plastic bags!

But now the time has come for New Jersey.

The single-use bag ban was signed into law in November 2020 but implementation was delayed 18 months to give businesses and customers time to prepare.

We see plastic bags in the street, in tress, blowing across highways and - in their worst locations - they end up in waterways, creeks, rivers, and the ocean. They have been noted to be the most frequently found pieces of litter by volunteers cleaning up beaches, rivers and streams in New Jersey.

Turtles, dolphins, and whales mistake bags for food and choke to death or starve due to blocked digestive systems. Plastic bags can also be ingested by birds or smaller fish as they break down into smaller pieces. They can also make their way up the food chain, affecting human health.

On May 4, 2022 a law banning single-use plastic shopping bags goes into effect in New Jersey.

Local bans have already been in effect in some places. Jersey shore towns see the worst consequences of plastic pollution and in 2015 Longport became the first municipality to ban single-use plastic bags.

What does that mean for you? Supermarkets, stores, and restaurants will no longer be allowed to give out single-use plastic bags to customers.

Many places can offer free paper bags instead. Supermarkets over 2,500 square feet (which is most of them) won’t have that option. Prepare to bring your own reusable bags. Many stores will offer them for sale at checkout.

If you've been to a big box store, such as Costco, you know that they never offered bags, but they did offer their empty cardboard boxes and trays which you could take home and then hopefully recycle.

The ban also affects most polystyrene foam containers. These are commonly clamshell-style foam food containers used for takeout orders and foam beverage cups.

All this is good for the environment and I'm glad that New Jersey is getting on board. We are not the first to institute this kind of ban. There are already 8 states to ban single-use plastic bags. We join California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. However, the NJ ban is considered the strictest.