A New Tax for Plastic Supermarket Bags May Be in Your Future
A New Jersey Senate Committee voted this week to approve a new 5-cent fee for plastic supermarket bags which will go to fund environmental cleanup.
A new Senate bill could have you paying more for plastic bags at the grocery store.
The Carryout Bag Reduction and Recycling Act was approved by a 4-0 vote of the Senate Environmental Energy Committee on Monday that would require stores to charge a 5-cent fee per plastic food bag at the checkout aisle beginning in 2014.
On the other hand, the bill would also give a 5-cent rebate or credit for every reusable bag provided by a shopper. In addition, the bill would require stores to only offer recyclable carryout bags by 2015.
The bill will soon be taken up in the Assembly, according to NJ.com.
The 5-cent fee would go toward the Department of Environmental Protection’s Barnegat Bay Restoration Fund, which works to improve the water quality of polluted Barnegat Bay.
The bill was first introduced in 2008.
Innumerable other states and towns have passed laws in recent years to curb the use of plastic bags, which are infamous for polluting waterways and beaches.
What do you think? Would you complain if you had to pay 5 cents for every plastic bag at the grocery store if you knew it was going to a good cause?
John Santaella
1:29 pm on Saturday, December 22, 2012
Every time a new tax is thought of a new way of spending that money goes along with that increase. How about applying this new found money to paying off our debt. Nah, never happen.
Diane Schwarz
4:25 pm on Saturday, December 22, 2012
I always carry recyclable bags in my trunk and mostly remember to bring them into the stores. Some already reward me! Anyway, somehow, plastic bags seem to procreate in my collection closet!
John Santaella
7:26 pm on Saturday, December 22, 2012
I have the same problem with plastic bags as I do with clothes hangers. I think socks in the washer transmogrify into plastic bags and clothes hangers.