Ban on Plastic Bags Coming Fast
By Albert B. Kelly
As we get ready to undertake Bridgeton’s semi-annual community clean-up for 2022 with the kick-off Saturday (March 26th) at 9am at the Marino Center (11 Washington Street), my thoughts turn to the looming deadline of May 4th which is the date that New Jersey’s ban on single-use plastic carryout bags goes into effect. I’m talking about the plastic bags we’ve grown so accustomed to getting whenever we shop at supermarkets, convenience stores and similar retail businesses. Beyond the single-use bags, polystyrene foam food containers will also be banned.
Whatever sense of inconvenience I might feel the first 20 times I forget to bring my re-useable carry-out bags with me to the store, will hopefully be balanced out by my satisfaction at not having to pick up an obscene number of the single-use plastic bags that have become the stock and trade of curb lines, storm drains, retention basins, and tree lines from one end of the community to the other.
I am also reminded that single-use plastic bags, like so many other plastic products is not exactly biodegradable in the sense we think of something breaking down in the environment. Depending on conditions wherever such a bag might be found, a single-use bag could last two decades or more. My point is that while the ban goes into effect May 4th, we’ll still be picking these things out of our hair so to speak in 2050. Go figure.
The May 4th deadline is quickly approaching and it is time that we change our behavior and expectations. That starts with purchasing reusable bags with handles. Re-useable carry-out bags should be made of polypropylene fabric, PET non-woven fabric, nylon, cloth, hemp, or other washable fabric and should have stitched (not glued) handles and be manufactured for multiple re-uses and by multiple they mean 125 uses.
Also kicking in on May 4th is the ban on polystyrene foam food service products. This ban prohibits all food service businesses and individuals from providing or offering the sale of any polystyrene foam food service products. However, exempted for the next 2 years are those disposable, long-handled polystyrene soda spoons used for thick drinks, portion cups of two ounces or less if used for hot foods or foods requiring lids, meat and fish trays for raw or butchered meat (including poultry), or fish that is sold from a refrigerator.
As far as enforcement, it has various layers. Apparently the DEP, municipalities, and any entity certified by the County Environmental Health Act have the authority to enforce the ban on single-use plastic carryout bags, polystyrene foam food service products and plastic straws. The law provides that any person or entity that violates the statute gets a warning first and after that fines can be $1,000 for a second offense and $5,000 for third and subsequent offenses.
The ban is all-inclusive and every store and organization or entity in the state is subject to the law regardless of where the store is located. Ongoing or chronic violations can be treated as separate “per diem” violations, meaning that each day is its own offense under the law.
For many, this will at first feel like a huge inconvenience. I understand that feeling but that’s only because of what we’ve gotten accustomed to doing over the course of our shopping lives. Once we develop a new set of habits and a new routine, we won’t think twice about utilizing re-usable bags nor will we question the wisdom of doing so.
I imagine that for a small minority of people this whole ban on single-use bags and polystyrene foam food service containers will have the look and feel of some lefty nonsense. So be it, but most of these won’t be among us on clean-up day when we’re fishing these things out of bushes, tress, and waterways around the community.
All of this is part of a much bigger framework that touches many things in our daily lives that ultimately lead back to climate change and global warming for one reason or another. It is hard for us old heads to face this truth because it means that so many of our common everyday habits and routines for much of our lives turns out to be what has caused so much damage to the environment. Perhaps the least I can do now is be inconvenienced while I develop new habits and routines without single-use bags.