All grocery stores over 2,500 square feet will be banned from giving out both the plastic and paper bags that have been staples at checkouts for decades; Styrofoam containers, like the ones used for take-out food, will also be banned
The plastic bag ban made law in New Jersey earlier this year has some wrinkles that lawmakers want to iron out.
After complaints of reusable bags piling up in homes, state senators sponsored a bill recently to allow grocery delivery companies to use certain paper bags. The bill's options would allow for a choice between single-use bag made with at least 40% recycled material, cardboard boxes, or reusable bags.
The bill's sponsors, Sens. Bob Smith and Kristin Corrado, also want to establish rules that would require grocery stores or their delivery services that drop off reusable bags to create a recycling program to return and clean the bags to use again.
"The changes we are proposing will prevent people who use grocery services from being stuck with large numbers of reusable bags they don’t need, while allowing additional packaging choices that are both convenient and environmentally friendly," Corrado said last week.
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Five years after the passage of the bill, as written, grocery delivers would no longer be able to use the partially recycled bag or cardboard box option.
But over in the state Assembly, there's concern that five years is too long of a grace period for the delivery services. Assemblyman John McKeon wants that window dropped down to two or three years.
“It’s upsetting to me that this problem has bubbled up because, in the last legislation, we gave the industry a year and a half to figure things like this out, so there weren’t these kinds of problems,” McKeon told the New Jersey Monitor.
