Plastic Or Paper Bags? There May Soon Be A Ban On BOTH…

Do you prefer paper or plastic bags? What about neither....

With all this "Go Green" talk, you had to see this coming but a new bill that is seriously being considered for New Jersey will ban both plastic AND paper bags.

So this change would actually benefit our environment AND public health concerns.

When littered plastic isn't taken care of, it ends up in our oceans, our lakes and our ponds which means that it harms our wildlife and we can end up ingesting small pieces of said plastic. Um, ew? Gross!

“When they get into your body, because you’re ingesting them, they also bring with them organic chemicals, some of which are carcinogenic,” said state Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex. “This is a public health crisis.”

This ban will also include plastic straws but I am already seeing a lot of headway with this movement. A lot of Jersey Shore bars are using the paper straws or just simply not offering straws for their drinks at all.

Now here is where the controversy comes in.

There are some criticizing this bill saying that it is unnecessary because there are major advancements being made with recycling technology.

Now to be honest, there are already A LOT of Jersey Shore towns that have banned plastic bags and this movement just continues to grow even as we speak.

However, banning both materials will still be a huge step in the right direction for our environment I feel like this is ultimately where we are headed anyways so we might as well enact it, make the necessary changes and enjoy the benefits.

“There’s a reason why Jersey Shore towns move forward to ban plastic bags and polystyrene first,” said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey. “When you do [beach] cleanups, they find not just a couple hundred, not just a thousand — 25,000 pieces of polystyrene on their beaches.”

Man makes a point. So my advice? Anytime you see a reusable bag, nab it because you may need it sooner than you think.

More information on this topic can be found at Whyy.org.

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