Sea Bright Passes Strong Ban on Plastic Bags & Balloons

The Sea Bright Council at a special meeting last night unanimously passed an Ordinance No. 23-2019 ordinance on the second reading to ban single use plastic and plastic balloons. The ordinance states, “no business or store shall provide any single-use, plastic carryout bags; polystyrene foam containers; plastic straws or plastic utensils to a customer at the check stand, cash register, point of sale, or other point of departure for the purpose of transporting products or goods out of the business or store.” There is also a fee on paper carryout bag or a reusable bag of $0.10.

“In a win in our battle against plastic pollution, Sea Bright passed a strong ordinance banning plastic bags and balloons. This is an important step in the right direction. The ordinance will ban plastic gags, polystyrene, plastic straws, and more. It’s good that coastal towns like Sea Bright are jumping on the plastic ban bandwagon. Plastic has become a menace to our environment and is a public health issue. It is important that more and more towns and counties and moving forward to reduce their plastic footprint,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We thank the Sea Bright Council for taking a big step towards making their town cleaner and greener. This shows that 40 towns in New Jersey are moving forward on banning plastic and state legislature need to step up.”

Plastic has become a bigger and bigger problem that affects our environment. It’s not just in the Pacific, its also here in New Jersey. Rutgers scientists recently found densities of about 28,000 to more than 3 million plastic particles per square kilometer in the Passaic and Raritan River. Beach sweeps in New Jersey have found that more than 80% of their trash is plastic. What is even worse is that there has been a 59% increase in plastic straws found on beaches from these sweeps.

“Plastics are an existential threat to our drinking water, beaches, and wildlife. Microplastics have already been found near our drinking water supply, so we can literally be drinking plastic. It’s critical that Sea Bright will also be banning polystyrene. Polystyrene is a toxic problem because it contains carcinogenic chemicals and has been found in breast milk,” said Tittel. “By reducing how much plastic we use, we can also reduce fracking and fossil fuel use.”

In New Jersey, towns like Paramus, Bayonne, Lambertville, Avalon, Belmar, Hoboken, Jersey City, Teaneck are all passing plastic bag ban ordinances that would tackle New Jersey’s plastic waste problem.  Jersey City will be the largest city in the state to implement a ban on single use, disposable plastic bags. Atlantic County banned plastic bags for their parks too. The state legislature has one of the most comprehensive ban bills in the nation. S2776 (Smith) is a statewide ban on single use plastic bags, plastic straws, and polystyrene. The bill is up for vote in Senate Budget tomorrow, December 5^th, 2019.

“Sea Bright did something very bright yesterday in banning single use plastics. Now the legislature must follow. The legislature has one of the most comprehensive ban bills in the nation. Bill S2776 (Smith) is a statewide ban on single use plastic bags, plastic straws, and polystyrene. We would Senator Smith’s bill to mirror California’s hybrid single use plastic ban by adding a 10-cent fee on paper and reusable bag and have a better enforcement mechanism in place. Close to 20 towns and counties have banned plastic and 20 more are in the process of passing plastic bans. This should give the state momentum to pass a comprehensive statewide ban on single use plastics. We need our Assembly members and Senate to pass a statewide ban for Governor Murphy to sign before our plastic waste problem gets any worse,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club