By Marjorie Preston
In May 2022, New Jersey enacted a ban on single-use plastic bags. Supporters say the ban is a success. Critics say it’s actually increased plastic consumption. As in most things, it depends on whom you ask.
In November 2020, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation to ban the distribution of single-use plastic bags by supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, and other retail outlets and businesses in the state.
Murphy said the ban addressed “the problem of plastic pollution head-on, with solutions that will help mitigate climate change and strengthen our environment for future generations.” Eighteen months later, on May 5, 2022, the ban took effect.
After some initial grumbling, New Jerseyans adjusted, and learned to either carry their own shopping bags or buy heavier-weight bags at checkout (Wawa charges 35 cents for “value-priced reusable bags”; supermarkets charge $1 to $2 for shopping totes). But two years since the ban began, opinions are still divided about its success.
In January, a report from Cleveland-based research firm the Freedonia Group indicated that plastic use in the state has actually tripled since the ban, from 53 million pounds to 151 million pounds a year, as consumers are forced to buy bags made with 15 to 20 times the plastic of single-use bags.
According to the report, the sturdier bags must be reused from 11 to 59 times to produce a net environmental benefit, but are typically discarded after one or two uses.
The Freedonia study was initially reported in Forbes, which failed to mention that it was commissioned by the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance (ARPBA), a lobbying group which, according to its website, “promotes the use of plastic bags for consumers and the planet.” (Forbes later made the connection).
The ARPBA also contends that single-use bags account for less than 1 percent of items collected at litter cleanups, and have the fewest environmental impacts “when disposed of correctly.”
Thumbs Up from ACUA
By contrast, according to Amy Cook-Menzel of the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA), “The amount of plastic bags we find as litter has dropped dramatically in two years since the ban.
“We rarely find any plastic bags on cleanups anymore—they used to be one of the top items, and were particularly difficult to remove because of how they wrap around trees, bushes, etc.”
Statistics provided by the ACUA suggest that the ban could cut single-use plastic-bag litter in the state by at least 33 percent overall. That means 2.7 billion fewer single-use plastic bags will be introduced into the environment, and the 13.8 million gallons of oil that would have been used to manufacture them will also be saved.
And while the Freedonia study drew its conclusions in part on consumers tossing reusable bags as readily as single-use bags, the ACUA says there are many ways to responsibly dispose of the bags, if they start to pile up.
For example, the Community FoodBank of New Jersey and nearly 300 of its network partners (food pantries, soup kitchens, etc.) happily accept donations of “clean, new, or gently used reusable shopping bags.” Some retailers and supermarkets also collect bags for reuse.
In addition, many grocers and food purveyors who once automatically bagged pickup or delivery orders are now asking shoppers to opt out of bag use. The ACUA itself accepts clean reusable bags at its administrative building (Building No. 1) in the Environmental Park, 6700 Delilah Road in Egg Harbor Township.
Data from Long Branch-based Clean Ocean Action also suggests a positive impact since the ban, according to Rebecca Turygan, environmental coordinator for Atlantic County Clean Communities. “In 2022, after the bag ban, they did not have plastic bags as one of their Top 12 items collected for the first time since 2007”—down 37 percent in a single year. And last year, “they averaged less than one bag per volunteer at their beach sweeps throughout the state.”
Meanwhile, a new report from three nonprofits—Environment America, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, and the Frontier Group—has found that bans in New Jersey, Vermont and three cities, Philadelphia, Portland, Oregon, and Santa Barbara, Calif., have already reduced the number of single-use plastic bags used each year by around 6 billion—enough to circle the planet 42 times.
Global Scale
A world leader in recycling is headquartered right here in New Jersey, at Trenton-based TerraCycle. The company specializes in hard-to-recycle waste such as coffee pods, fast-food sauce packets, chip bags, and even cigarette butts, as well as single-use plastic bags. It enlists big businesses that use these items, and gets them on board with helping to reduce and recycle them.
So why isn’t there more recycling in the old-fashioned sense, when consumers used to return glass bottles for a nickel? TerraCycle founder and CEO Tom Szaky cites two main reasons: ease and convenience.
“Waste is a modern idea and a fast-growing crisis,” Szaky says. “We create products that nature doesn’t have systems to digest. We buy things we don’t need, use them for a short period of time, and throw them away. The vast majority of this material is burned in incinerators, buried in landfills, or littered.”
Each year, he says, humans “use the resources of nearly two planets, and throw out over 2 billion tons of trash.”
He points to his company’s Loop program as a latter-day version of the milk-bottle solution. Loop enables any manufacturer to “create products in reusable, returnable packaging and any retailer (to) sell those products to consumers.” Shoppers who buy the products pay a deposit for the reusable packaging, and get a refund when they return the empty containers.
However, Szaky adds, “We can’t recycle our way out of the waste crisis. To prevent waste and create a truly circular economy, we must transition away from disposability altogether.”
Under the Sea
By one estimate, 33 billion pounds of plastic enter the marine environment every year. Topping the list of items most ingested by marine mammals are single-use plastic bags, balloons, plastic sheeting, food wrappers, and fishing line.
Unfortunately, to marine mammals and fish, single-use plastic bags, floating in the water, can look a lot like food. An exhibit at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden shows plastic bags bobbing in the water next to white ghost jellyfish. The two look virtually identical.
Sheila Dean, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, has issued special pleas against celebratory balloon releases, and also entreats consumers to slice open disposable six-pack rings, which often entrap seals, seagulls, turtles, and other animals.
“I don’t really know if there’s a way to mitigate this,” Dean says of the plastic crisis. “It’s a tough situation. They’ve come up with stronger plastic bags that last even longer and don’t disintegrate. And they can’t keep using paper, because that’s cutting down forests.
“There have to be more studies done, to come up with something else that’s biodegradable, yet strong.”
As of today, 12 U.S. states and more than 500 municipalities have banned single-use plastic bags, and more are likely to join. Consumer awareness is also critical, and action across all quarters of society. “Recycling can become much more successful,” says Szaky, “but it will take action from consumers, brands, retailers, governments, etc.”
ACUA’s Cook-Menzel urges consumers to be more thoughtful about their use of plastics.
“A lot can be recycled, and that’s great, but isn’t it better to reduce the amount of waste you’re creating? Do you really need to buy water in bottles? We have great water here. Can you get a water filter or use those bottles again? When you go to a restaurant, take your own container for leftovers. Reuse your (convenience store) coffee cup.
“So many little actions on their own don’t necessarily have a great impact,” she says, but they add up. “Recycling is one of the easiest things we can do to have an impact.”
Marjorie Preston is a business writer, editor, ghostwriter and compulsive reader, who gobbles up books like potato chips. For more information (and more book reviews), visit marjorieprestonwriting.com.
