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Bayonne Bans Plastic Bags Effective New Year's Day
Carryout Plastic Bags Banned With Certain Exceptions Mayor Jimmy Davis reminded Bayonne residents and retail establishments that Bayonne’s ban on single-use, carryout plastic bags by retail establishments takes effect on…
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Carryout Plastic Bags Banned With Certain Exceptions
Mayor Jimmy Davis reminded Bayonne residents and retail establishments
that Bayonne’s ban on single-use, carryout plastic bags by retail establishments
takes effect on January 1, 2020. The ban will not apply to certain uses that are
specified in the ordinance.
According to the plastic bag ordinance passed earlier this year by the
Municipal Council, as of New Year’s Day, “No retail establishment shall provide
any single-use, plastic carry-out bags to a customer at the checkout 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, except as otherwise provided” in the
ordinance
.
The ordinance also prohibits retail establishments from selling or providing
“single-use plastic straws to customers.”
There are certain exceptions to the plastic bag ban. The ordinance says,
“Single-use, plastic, carryout bags may be used by businesses or stores to sell
bait.” There is also an exception for “items required to be sold or delivered in
plastic bags in compliance with state and federal food safety and disposal laws.”
There are also six other exemptions from the plastic bag ban:
1. Bags, whether plastic or not, in which loose produce or products are placed
by a customer to deliver such items to the point of sale or check-out of a Retail
Establishment;
2. Laundry or dry-cleaning bags;
3. Newspaper bags;
4. Bags used to contain or wrap frozen food, meat, fish or other items, whether
prepackaged or not, to prevent or contain moisture;
5. Bags provided by pharmacists to contain prescription drugs; or
6. Bags sold in packages containing multiple bags intended for use as garbage,
pest waste or yard waste bags.
The ordinance offers some alternatives to single-use plastic bags. The
ordinance states, “All retail establishments shall provide customers only reusable
bags and/or recyclable paper bags.” According to another provision, “Nothing in
this section, however, shall be read to preclude retail establishments from making
reusable bags available for sale to customers or from customers using their own
reusable bags.”
The Council passed the ordinance in order to help reduce both litter and the
negative effects that plastic bags have on marine life.
At least one supermarket has taken notice of the city’s new law. In a statement,
Stop & Shop has announced that beginning on Wednesday, it will provide reusable
shopping bags to the first 300 customers who request one at their store located at
1 LeFante Way. Together with their parent company Ahold Delhaize, Stop & Shop
has already removed over one billion plastic bags from the waste stream.
Over the summer, when the City Council first adopted the ordinance, the office
of Assemblyman Nicholas Chiaravalloti distributed hundreds of reusable bags to
his constituency.
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