Vendors in Monmouth Beach will be barred from providing plastic straws, like these collected on a borough beach, as well as plastic bags and plastic or styrofoam containers, effective June 1. (Monmouth Beach Environmental Commission)
“This is right for the Jersey Shore and all towns,” said Mayor Sue Howard, who as one of three members of the borough’s board of commissioners voted to adopt the ban at a meeting Tuesday night. “Living on the shore you’re sensitive to the environment. Not only do we care about where we live, we want to protect that (broader) environment for our children for the future.”
The ban prohibits local restaurants, grocers and other vendors from using plastic or Styrofoam for carry-out, take-out or doggie-bag containers, or from providing plastic straws. The ordinance, which was introduced last month and takes effect June 1, includes fines of up to $2,400, though Howard said warnings would be issued for initial violations.
Non-biodegradable plastic products have been washing up on beaches in New Jersey and throughout the world at what environmentalists say is an alarmingly increasing rate, indicating that more and more bags, bottles, straws and fragments are making their way into the ocean via storm drains, inland water ways, dumping or other avenues.
Plastic is the most common form of beach litter and debris found during annual spring and fall beach sweeps by the non-profit group Clean Ocean Action, which reported a 58.75-percent increase in plastic straws found on New Jersey beaches in 2017, an increase consistent with global figures.
Rather then sinking to the ocean floor, floating plastic or Styrofoam debris can choke, strangle or otherwise incapacitate sea creatures who ingest or become ensnared in them.
Several municipalities along the Jersey shore have approved or are considering curbs on the use of disposable plastic items, and New Jersey is one of several states weighing a plastic ban.
What stands out about the Monmouth Beach measure, borough officials and environmentalists say, is that it prohibits bags, straws and containers, whether they are made or Styrofoam, rather than any one of those items or materials alone.
“No one was doing all three,” said Howard, who has been mayor for 13 years in the officially non-partisan borough, home to about 3,200 residents over 3 square miles on Monmouth County’s northern Atlantic coast. “We just though its time to do it all.”
Clean Ocean Action’s executive director, Cindy Zipf, who was among several environmentalists present for Tuesday night’s vote, said Monmouth Beach could serve as a model for other communities.
“Hopefully, this is just the beginning,” Zipf said.
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“Hopefully, this is just the beginning,” Zipf said.
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