Murphy lauds landmark bill banning most single-use bags

Gov. Phil Murphy praised a measure the state Legislature sent him on Sept. 24 that would prohibit businesses from using Styrofoam and paper and plastic bags, saying it would be one of the strongest environmental laws in the nation.

“I was really happy to see that. It’s something we worked closely on,” the governor said at a Sept. 25 COVID-19 briefing in Trenton.

Both the Assembly and the Senate approved the measure, Senate Bill 864, after it languished for more than six months amid the COVID-19 pandemic, having last passed the state Senate in early March.

“If I do sign it, it’ll be the strongest of its kind in the United States of America, and assuming that happens, that’s another badge of honor and another big step toward that environmental reality we’re desperately trying to achieve in the state,” Murphy added. New Jersey would reportedly be the first state in the nation to ban single-use paper bags.

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Starting 18 months after the bill is signed, businesses such as restaurants, convenience stores, food trucks, movie theaters and and grocery stores measuring at least 2,500 square feet will be prohibited from giving out polystyrene and plastic and paper bags. Beginning a year after the bill is signed, drinking straws can only be given to customers who request them.

Exemptions apply to bags used for wrapping raw meat; Styrofoam butcher trays; bags used for loose produce; those that hold fish and insects from pet stores; and bags for prescription drugs, newspapers and dry-cleaning. A first-time offense will draw a warning, followed by a $1,000 fine for the second offense and $5,000 for subsequent violations.

The bill is worded to encourage reusable bags, which would be exempt from the ban if they are made of materials such as “polypropylene, PET nonwoven fabric, nylon, cloth, hemp products, or other machine-washable fabric.”

Environmentalists have hailed the measure as a means to curb the waste of single-use products, arguing that it would be the toughest restrictions nationwide on single-use plastics and paper bags, and Styrofoam.

Republicans and business groups warn the costs of alternatives, if they even exist, would be passed onto customers.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection could grant a one-year waiver to the Styrofoam ban if a business has no “feasible and commercially available alternative,” or if it makes less than $500,000 in yearly gross income.

The measure would also allocate $500,000 to the NJDEP for a program to provide free, reusable bags throughout the state. In addition, the state would create a Plastics Advisory Council within the agency to gauge the effectiveness of the new restrictions.