Each year over 2.5 million tons of plastic and paper bags end up in our oceans and landfills. Less than three percent of plastic bags and twenty percent of paper bags are recycled. Now the Legislature is moving forward with important legislation to combat this pollution problem by providing incentives to use reusable bags.
The "Carryout Bag Reduction and Recycling Act" encourages retailers to offer a 5 cent rebate to customers who bring their own bags, promoting increased recycling. The bill would impose a fee of 5 cents for every paper or plastic bag used, penalizing those who pollute.
The money raised from the fee goes towards protecting Barnegat Bay. This bill could generate as much as $20 million a year to retrofit stormwater basins and clean up the Bay, which is especially important following Hurricane Sandy.
Consumers pay $18-30 per person in hidden costs to cover the cost of “free” bags provided by retailers. This bill will help reduce those costs while cutting back our waste stream and use of fossil fuel products, better protecting our environment and wildlife, and raising funds to clean up Barnegat Bay.
In 2011 plastic and paper bags ranked in the top ten for trash picked up during the Ocean Conservancy’s Coastal Cleanup.
Plastic bags are not only an eye sore, but can cause devastating impacts to marine life. Research has found 100,000 marine animals and 1 million birds die each year from plastics, whether it is ingestion or entanglement. When marine animals ingest these plastics they can enter the food chain putting human health at risk because of the toxins in the plastic.
Plastic bags also affect water quality by clogging storm drains and filling up detention basins. The plastic as it breaks down creates a thin film that coats detention basins and seepage pits and prevents the stormwater from absorbing back into the ground, creating more flooding. They pollute our beaches, parks, and roadways or sit in our landfills where it takes up to 1000 years for the bags to break down.
The production of plastic bag requires both petroleum and natural gas byproducts. With soaring gas prices and the dangers of fracking this “use once and toss it” approach is not worth the resources it takes to produce, especially when the United States is estimated to go through close to 100 billion plastic bags a year.
About 35% of landfill waste is comprised of paper products, including paper bags. 14 million trees are cut down each year to make paper bags. The manufacturing of paper bags still requires some virgin pulp, which has stronger fibers, and bags can only be recycled 5-6 times before the fibers become too weak.
This waste increases our property taxes. It costs between $65-$125 a ton to place garbage in the landfill. We export 1.8 million tons of waste to other states each year, along with the air pollution from 100,000 trucks. New Jersey is the number 2 waste exporter in the country, using our tax money to export that trash each year. Reducing the amount of waste we produce is good for the environment and our wallets by helping to stabilize or lower property taxes.
The industry and retailers says they recycle the bags but undercover reports have found many of them just get thrown out. Even when the bags are reused to carry lunches or to line household garbage pails they still end up in our landfills eventually.
Many people in urban areas tend to walk to stores and already bring along backpacks, reusable bags, and carts when they shop. This bill will help them save money with a rebate for bringing those bags.
In San Francisco plastic bag use was reduced by 78% after a fee was instituted. Washington DC saw a 60% reduction of plastic bag litter in the Anacostia River following the implementation of a 5 cent fee. Plastic bag usage there dropped from 22.5 million a month to 3 million after the fee came into effect. Ireland’s bag ban fee reduced plastic bag usage by 90% in the first year and raised over $18 million. In the United States, 61 cities have banned or put a fee on non-reusable bags. Hawaii’s three counties have banned plastic bags, creating a statewide ban and 14 states have pending legislation on plastic and paper bags.
New Jersey has a long history of being a national leader on environmental issues and must step up again on plastic and paper bag pollution. We need the Legislature to pass and the Governor to sign the "Carryout Bag Reduction and Recycling Act" as quickly as possible to encourage the use of reusable bags and reduce our waste stream.
Only the hot air spewed from a few on here.
I believe that some on here would love to live next to that red river in china. So pretty!
This is the same nonsense they pulled with light bulbs a few years back. Faux outrage and professional victim mentality at its finest.
As for those of you who see fit to inject 9/11 victims into this thread - Obviously you were not affected like many of us by it. I hope you never have to know what it is like to deal with the loss and the after effects of something like that.
I eagerly await the response from a tree hugger who is hacking away on a laptop that was built in China with slave labor in a plant that is polluting the air and water, and was transported here on a cargo ship that burned fossil fuels and killed wildlife.
And we use way more plastic every day than we take in by grocery bags - plastic utensils bought in the store and given with take out food, plastic hot cup lids, plastic containers, plastic packaging, plastic security tags on clothing, plastic hangers, plastic dry cleaning bags, plastic parts on appliances, plastic sun glass frames, plastic beach sandals, plastic parts on ink cartridges, pens, flashlights - need I go on? There was a big move about 20 years ago to get away from glass bottles on drinks and cosmetics and move to plastic (a lot had to do with liability for cuts on broken glass) and one of the biggest points of argument in OC lately was to save the trees by redecking the boardwalk with a vinyl based composite. And Barb is right - these plastics are manufactured in places where they do not have our environmental dictators, by slave labor and then burn through thousands of gallons of fossil fuels to be delivered here - in plastic containers.
Exactly, now it's a hidden cost passed to the customer, and after this law passes it's just more profit for those markets. The 5c each is likely what those bags cost to produce, so they'll be covered.
Another tax perpetrated by the environMENTALists!
I love the look people give you when your dog crapps in the wooded area of a walkway, or park (ie: Double trouble) I can see if it's in plain view, or an area where people will step - but in the woods, C'mon people. It's ok for the hundreds of animals to do so but not pets.
Just another example of people (Im looking at you Jeff) who want to bleed the middle class dry, 5 cents at a time. Thanks for nothing.
You will find out why the cost of 90% of the store's items won't go up. You'll also find out why the penny they get from this will likely be put right back into lowering the cost of staple products, and why bread-eggs-milk-butter (which are, btw, government subsidized to keep prices down) will be further lowered if they feel consumers are pinched from the bag tax. They'd rather charge you $0.05 for a perishable product they may have to throw away than making you pay for a bag that will last 1,000 years.
The "cut" was temporary mostly because the lost SS revenues only further reduced the cash flows into the SS fund and came without any reduction in future benefits even though we didn't pay for them and as pointed out above, added to the deficit/debt. While the payroll tax holiday - the TAX CUT of 2% was temporary, the increase back to most middle class Americans is significant. 2% x $40K = $800. It essentially wipes out any increase in wages they might have received (if lucky and not employed by the government). This is on top of rising gas, food and healthcare costs. Pretty much Obama has impacted the middle class more than anyone knows but like most low information voters, they can't understand it. Oh well, elections have consequences. Less money for middle class means less to spend means weaker economy means less jobs means more problems. Now back to the discussion about plastic bags.
Oh, and gas will now become more expensive too for you people. Great Job Jeff....