Sponsors may be forced to walk back a provision in their single-use, bag-ban bills dealing with the provision of free reusable bags.

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

Legislation to ban single-use plastic and paper bags seemed to be racing toward passage in New Jersey but amendments added last week in the Senate Budget Committee blindsided the supermarket industry and caused a ruckus. So much so that the legislation was pulled yesterday from the agenda of the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee.

What went wrong?

The latest version would require large grocery stores to provide their customers with free, reusable bags for up to two months after the bill takes place.

The New Jersey Food Council was surprised by the change and argued that it would cost a single chain with 30 stores in the state $1.8 million over the two months.

Food Council Executive Director Linda Doherty said that would constitute an unconstitutional ‘taking,’ something that the bill’s Assembly sponsor, John McKeon, seemed to concede when asked about the provision yesterday in the Assembly committee.

Doherty suggested that, rather than providing a free, reusable bag to customers every time they visit a store for two months, grocers would be willing to work with organizations like Clean Communities to provide a limited distribution of free, reusable bags at community events.

Although the current legislative session ends in mid-January, we think it’s still a safe bet that a bag ban will end up on the governor’s desk before then. There are too many parties all agreeing that the legislation is necessary to prevent an ultimate compromise.

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