In a local bodega not far from City Hall in Jersey City, a store clerk puts a cup of coffee into a paper bag for the customer to take. The spilled liquid soaks through the bottom of the bag – forcing the clerk to put both bag and coffee into a cheap plastic bag.
Plastic bags of this kind replaced paper bags during the late 1970s and into the 1980s, partly because of scenes like this and partly because environmentalists saw plastic bags as a way to preserve woodlands devastated by harvesting to make paper products. Plastic bags are also more durable than their paper equivalent and for many are easier to transport.
But environmentalists now have different concerns. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claims that 80 percent of the pollution in the world’s oceans comes from land-based trash and that by the year 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish.
Plastic does not go away, but it does break down into smaller pieces that are often ingested by animals and fish.
Jersey City and a number of cities across the nation have decided to ban plastic bags in a push to get customers to shops using cloth or reusable bags.
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“Poor families load up their cars and bring a lot of bags home.” – Daniel Rivera
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Not so fast
At least four members of the City Council have raised red flags when it comes to an outright ban on these bags. They’ve asked Mayor Steven Fulop to come up with alternatives that might reduce the use of these bags in the city without totally doing away with them.
During the June 11 council caucus, members grilled administration representatives, showing just how out-of-touch the administration may be with a community that relies on the bags.
Councilman Daniel Rivera said city officials do not seem to grasp how many people shop in Jersey City. He said the ban will mostly impact the poor who might not be able to afford alternatives.
“Poor families load up their cars and bring a lot of bags home,” Rivera said.
The ban does not affect plastic wrapping that is used to seal food, said City Business Administrator Brian Platt.
Jersey City hopes to follow cities like San Francisco that have instituted bans on bags that inevitably end up in trash dumps and are often ingested by fish and animals. This has the potential to end up in human food. When digested, they may cause cancer.
But there has been pushback from more conservative states, pressured by large retailers to allow the bags.
While Jersey City’s ban is not as onerous as the one being proposed in Hoboken, in which residents may have to provide their own reusable bags, the aim is to eventually do away with paper and one-time-use plastic bags.
Council looking for alternatives
Councilman Michael Yun has asked the council not to introduce the ordinance in order to possibly amend it with alternatives that would fall short of an outright ban.
Yun would like customers to still have access to these bags, either by requiring stores to charge for them or by establishing a giveback program.
ShopRite stores instituted a recycling program that allows customers to bring back these bags.
Yun, formerly the head of the Central Avenue Special Improvement District, suggested that a similar program might be implemented.
Councilman Richard Boggiano said paper bags have a worse impact on the environment.
Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey Airy said farmers’ markets in the city have conducted plastic bag bring-back programs, although these have faced some challenges.
While city officials agreed that these plastic bags have less of an initial impact – costing less energy to produce than their paper counter parts – in the long term, plastic does more damage to the environment and cannot be recycled the way other plastics can be.
Platt said allowing merchants to charge a fee for providing the plastic bags would require approval from the state.
Councilman Jermaine Robinson said he was concerned about the cost to residents and said the ban would likely create a hardship for small retail mom-and-pop stores.
Platt said the city would try to offset the cost to consumers of cloth bags with a program to give them to people, perhaps funded by the Department of Public Works budget.
“We can also modify the ordinance to make exceptions for small stores,” Platt said.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.
