Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:
The state is looking to adopt one of the nation’s most far-reaching bills to address pollution caused from plastic waste.
New Jersey lawmakers have drafted a bill to ban single-use carryout plastic bags but now want to extend the prohibition to plastic straws and polystyrene food containers.
The legislation, up for consideration in committee tomorrow, also will impose a 10-cent fee on paper bags. That step, in concert with the ban on plastic bags, will encourage consumers to switch to reusable bags and more environmentally friendly alternatives, according to proponents.
The fee on paper bags is double what shoppers would have had to pay under a bill vetoed last month by Gov. Phil Murphy. That measure would have imposed a nickel fee on both plastic and paper single-use bags.
In rejecting the legislation, Murphy said it did not go far enough in addressing the threats posed by plastic bags, which frequently litter the landscape, harm wildlife, and foul state waterways.
The proposal reflects versions of several bills pending in the Legislature for months, which emerged from a legislative hearing this summer on pollution problems caused by the proliferation of plastics. The imposition of a 10-cent fee on paper bags has made bans on plastic bags more effective where they have been imposed, according to Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.
California and Hawaii have imposed statewide bans on plastic bags; some cities in the Garden State have banned them as well, including Jersey City and Hoboken.
“If this bill passes, it would be the most comprehensive in the nation,’’ said Kelly Mooij, a vice president of New Jersey Audubon. “In one fell swoop, we would be addressing all the major causes of plastic pollution.’’
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