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N.J. has proposed plastic and paper bag surcharge
Proposed legislation would require a five-cent fee for each single-use plastic or paper bag and a five-cent refund for each consumer-provided bag.
Fri, Jan 04 2013 at 11:12 AM
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Photo by Mr. T in DC
The New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee has approved Bill S-182 that would place a five-cent fee for each single-use plastic or paper bag taken from a store and also give a five-cent refund for each reusable bag used by consumers.
NJ Spotlight says those are the details of the bill that the committee approved last month, although the N.J. state website has different details listed for Bill S-182 that was introduced in 2011. It looks like changes were made while the bill was in committee.
N.J. residents who want to voice their opinion about this bill to the Senate, and later on to the House if it gets that far, can contact their state representatives to make their thoughts known. There is also a petition on SignOn.org to be delivered to the New Jersey State Senate asking the members to support S-182, the “Reduce Plastic and Paper Bag Usage Act.”
Washington, D.C. currently has a similar surcharge on plastic bags. Since the surcharge was put in place in the beginning of 2010, $2.1 million a year has been raised that funds “outreach and education programs, inspection of stores to make sure they are complying with the law, and cleanup efforts in local waterways.”
In New Jersey, it’s projected that between $22 million and $28 million a year could be raised by the surcharge on single use bags, some of it to be used to restore Barnegat Bay.
As a resident of N.J., I’m in favor of this bill. I’d welcome a small rebate each time I use my reusable bags. I do wonder, however, where that rebate will come from. Will the stores be responsible for them, or will they be able to charge those rebates back to the state to be reimbursed from the surcharges collected? I hope to find that out. I would not like to see the state profit from this while stores lose money.
More about single-use bags on MNN:
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I work at Target and we already offer the 5 cent return if you use your own reusable bags. We also don't bag larger items unless specifically requested. We have handles that we attach to thinks like bulk packs of paper towels or diaper boxes. I think that the cost of the return would be offset by the savings on plastic bags.
I did a post about how Target actually handed me the nickel about two years ago.
http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/blogs/how-important-is-a-nickel
It's actually been quite a while before any of the Target cashier's gave me a rebate for my bags. I thought they'd stopped the program.
We have an employee owned supermarket that gives a rebate for your reusable bags. So it works without being reimbursed from the state. That being said, if the state mandates it then it would seem appropriate for the state to pay for it. This will be interesting to watch.
We have some grocery stores that give rebates for each bag - it gets taken off the bill at the end. If a store chooses to do it, that's great, and I applaud the owners choosing to be responsible over a few keeping those nickels. However, I agree, if the state mandates it, they shouldn't keep all the profit while expecting the stores to give money out in the form of rebates.
Very interesting. Although the rebate does look great for consumers within the economy, it still makes me wonder just how the "mega-store" is going to profit from S-182.
Being from the south, I only imagine what this would do for consumers who have that old school "onion" flip-top wooden stationary cabinet FULL of old bags. (gas pump savings? bread or milk purchases?)
If you read the original bill, there are specific details about what is considered a reusable bag - weight and thickness are part of it. I don't think that the paper or plastic single-use bags, if brought back to the store, would be eligible for the rebate if those specifics end up in whatever bill gets passed. It's not that people couldn't reuse those bags, it's just that they wouldn't get the 5 cent rebate.