The Jersey Shore Chapter would like to thank Governor Murphy for his veto on the 5¢ bag fee bill today!
NJ's legislature passed an imperfect bag law that puts a 5¢ fee on plastic and paper bags in the state. The money would have been used for a Healthy Schools and Community Lead Abatement Fund.
It would have been the first statewide fee on plastic bags so it would have been a significant step forward, but we think a future bill can be much stronger. Mainly, it needs to ban plastic bags, and not settle for a fee on them. We also want existing local bag bans to stand, not to be preempted by the state law.
Special thanks to all of the people and environmental groups that lobbied against the passage of this bill!