In an article from Fox News, New Jersey’s ban on single-use bags to protect the environment and reduce the adverse effects of climate change has proven to be counterproductive, to say the least. Instead of reducing plastic waste, it has had a snowball effect — plastic consumption in the state has nearly tripled.

Now you have to ask, what kind of research was done before writing the legislation replacing single-use bags with bags that must be used well over a dozen times to prove a viable substitute? The report discussed in this article would leave one to believe the law was made up of whole cloth, with, perhaps, little or no study whatsoever.

To “mitigate climate change and strengthen our environment for future generations”, New Jersey banned retailers from providing single-use plastic bags to customers. Declaring that the state was “addressing the problem of plastic pollution head-on with solutions that will help mitigate climate change and strengthen our environment for future generations”. Oops.

Thus, longer-lasting bags made of even more plastic (15 times that of single-use bags) were made available to purchase in the stores that were now forbidden to use single-use bags. But, because shoppers were in the habit of tossing the bags, even unused ones, they ended up contributing to a 500% increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since the production of single-use bags.

Had they done studies on the use of reusable bags before they wrote their law? Shoppers were throwing them out, even new and unused ones. And these reusable bags each have 15 times the plastic of the single-use bags. More unfortunately, to achieve a “positive impact on the environment” (whatever that is), each reusable bag would have to be used a minimum of 16 times.

Why not return to paper bags that are biodegradable, in other words, truly environmentally friendly?

Blue state’s bag ban meant to protect environment backfires at staggering rate: study

January 24, 2024 Fox News

Plastic consumption in New Jersey spiked by nearly three times following the state’s implementation of a strict ban on single-use plastic shopping bags, a study found. 

“Following New Jersey’s ban of single-use bags, the shift from plastic film to alternative bags resulted in a nearly 3x increase in plastic consumption for bags,” Freedonia Custom Research (FCR), a business research division for MarketResearch.com, reported in a study published this month. 

“Plastic bags are one of the most problematic forms of garbage, leading to millions of discarded bags that stream annually into our landfills, rivers and oceans,” Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said after signing legislation in 2020 that authorized the bag ban. “With today’s historic bill signing, we are addressing the problem of plastic pollution head-on with solutions that will help mitigate climate change and strengthen our environment for future generations.”  

It didn’t take long, however, until shoppers started airing their grievances to local media that the reusable bags were stacking up in their homes due to repeatedly purchasing reusable bags at the grocery store, or due to home grocery delivery services using new reusable bags each drop-off. 

Instead of having the intended beneficial impact on the environment, the reusable bag ban has actually backfired, data reported in the study show. Plastic consumption in the state has nearly tripled, with New Jerseyans previously consuming 53 million pounds of plastic before the ban, compared to 151 million pounds following the ban, FCR researchers reported. 

New Jersey is just one of a handful of states that have implemented plastic bag bans in an effort to stymie plastic consumption and benefit the environment. States such as Vermont, Oregon, California, and others have their own versions of bans on single-use plastic bags.

So, instead of having the intended beneficial impact on the environment, the reusable bag ban actually backfired — big time. A case of unintended consequences or a lack of research by the governing body? Or both?

To read the sourced article in its entirety: https://www.fox29.com/news/blue-states-bag-ban-meant-to-protect-environment-backfires-at-staggering-rate-study

Blue state’s bag ban meant to protect environment backfires at staggering rate: study

January 24, 2024 Fox News