Im all for reducing waste but I have two dogs and use the plastic bags to pick up after them. Is there an alternative to this for picking up after your dogs?

Pooper scoopers

Yeah, buy bags

Great article Jeff. We are a coastal state with many rivers and streams. We have to take responsibility for our actions and protect our environment. Clearly the amount of plastic that ends up along our roads and in our waterways and oceans shows us that actions must be taken. Similar legislation has proven that this actions works. Using a plastic bag for all of the 10 minutes that it takes to drive home then throwing it away to last for centuries in a land-fill makes no sense. Please email your state legislators to suppor this bill.

Everyday I see people walking their dogs without any dog-waste option. Last Sunday, I watched two people playing with their dogs on the tennis courts at Wood Park. Hello! tennis courts aren't for your dogs to pee and poop! I watched another guy in the park stand idle while his little white dog dumped in the park (near Footlighters). He just left it there. DISGUSTING!

My favorite choice for doggie waste is a child's pail and shovel (the kind toddlers play with at the beach). When you get home, you can just dump the waste in the trash. A dog's poop shouldn't be packaged in plastic for a 1,000 years.

These dog people and enviromentalists are nuts. I would rather listen the the dead beats crying about not getting any freebies from the government for a silly storm. At least the 9/11 whiners are almost gone. No wonder why this country is going down hill so fast.

The only thing I use plastic bags for is to put the meat, poultry, and the like in. I would never put them in a those reusable bags. Will we get fined if we put our veggies in the plastic bags too? Where does it end?

This guy is a tool. Which is it? Will the fee line the pockets of politicians or will it keep the bags out of the streams? You flip-flop back and fourth.
I love these "green" tree hugger-nut jobs...i would love to know the criteria they use to determine what is bad and good for the environment.
So tell me this Jeff, what does this website that you posted your fancy article operate off of? Magic? ...No it's that bad green house gas creating electricity, generated from the power plant that gets transmitted over power lines that you want to ban from expanding in your last article. Did you post it using a telegraph machine? No it was probably a computer, made with plastic and other polluting materials that end up in landfills by the millions every year...

grill master, by your logic why not just burn our trash in our fireplaces to stay warm?

please accept that some of us tree huggers enjoy clean air and water. the disposable plastic bag was never used by your grandparents. they did just fine without creating trash just to carry groceries.

and to Jenny Castro, i lost several friends in the WTC on 9/11. you really need to keep your ignorant and hateful comments to yourself.

These "green" environmentalists are goofy. We all don't live in thier fantacy world. We have real lives and could care less if our dog poops on your lawn. Get over it, dogs have been pooping on the ground for hundreds of years without any known problems until you forced people to carry it away. What's next, teach wild animals to use a spot-a-pot? There is no end to these idiots.

I don't care for plastic bags, but do we seriously need the state of New Jersey getting into the bag material enforcement business? Can't we leave that to Mayor Bloomberg?

Once again this morning I was stuck behind one of those yellow school buses spewing visible diesel exhaust smoke and noxious fumes. When do you plan to express concern about that? Don't you care about "the children"?

There's no question that plastic disposal/recycling in general is a huge problem. "The bill would impose a fee of 5 cents for every paper or plastic bag used, penalizing those who pollute." The issue here is that It would also penalize those that don't.

No offense, but c'mon people. Some of you will spend the next month whining about being asked to pay 5 cents for a plastic bag. Or having to deal with a Comcast customer services rep from India. Or any one of the trivial nonsense that comes down the pike.

And yet, in the same breath, you'll accuse 9/11 victims of whining about nothing.

Some of you no sense of shame or decency.

This guy titel may be a tool but he certainly gets people fired up. He should join the wwe.

Reusable bags are a splendid way to spread life-threatening containments spilt from the previous groceries in your reusable bag to the new groceries in the same bag. Jeff obviously does not care if people get sick or died from salmonella by using contaminated bags.

What insane memorial are you talking about? The memorials to our fallen soldiers? I guess we should just get over all the troops who gave their lives in WWI, WW2, Korea, Vietnam and all the recent wars. Stop having yearly events honoring our fallen soldiers, get over it, it's getting old??!! Are you suggesting we should forget 9/11, one of the worst attacks on US soil and we should forget the thousands of people who lost their lives in the most horrible way? What kind of human being are you, you are horrifying.

IMO,it will be nothing but another "feel good" law.All of you reuseable bag toters thin you are doing something great,but in reality,you're not.You have to use pollutants to wash those fabric bags,as well as hot water,which uses energy to heat.Those who use vinyl bags have to sanitize them with bleach or some other chemical that's bad for the environment.And you tote your assortment of plastic bags to throw out household waste home in those reusable bags.Ironic,at best.I do my part for the environment,too.I air dry my laundry in warmer whether. I compost some food scraps.I recycle and reuse everything that i can.But,this is stupid!

People are complaining about having to periodically clean reusable bags. You do clean plates, dishes, pots, pans and utensils after use? The cutting board has to be periodically cleaned as well as the counter top. Chicken is so toxic, so polluted that you practically have to wear a hazmat suit while handling raw chicken meat.

Nothing says class as much as a yellow Shoprite bag lining your wastebasket.

Stores only seem to put 2-3 items in those plastic bags most times. Paper bags use to get filled to the max and hold up so much better.
I also remember the brown paper bags being a much better school book cover than the ones we would pay for, which was recycling before it's time, back in the day.

Acme in Philly just recently bought back the paper bags with handles.
Isn't paper more recyclable than plastic? Just a thought.

Plastic bags are necessary to protect your groceries from cross-contamination. The debate is over, the science is settled.

work in a supermarket. have to put my hands in the disgusting cloth bags that people bring in. i actually asked someone to wash their bags the next time they came in and almost lost my job because this person lived in a mcmansion and thought they were all that. it must have been maid's day off. plastic bags do pollute, but people should be held responsible for their actions and possibly recycle them (every grocery store has a recycle bin) by the way, you should see what's left in these bags! no immediate solution to this problem except good old fashioned "responsibility"

Hummm, let's go with paper bags... we can then leave a bag of burning dog crap on Jenny Castro's front doorstep at the motel and she can just get over it!

A generation ago it was the 'save the trees' movement that pushed plastic bags and tried to get everyone to stop using paper bags and go to plastic. There were all kinds of ads about deforestation and animals deprived of their habitat. It was one reason artificial Christmas trees took off in a big way.
So one more time, we are having our habits dictated to us by the environmental movement.
People use plastic bags as a cheap alternative - they are good for picking up after your dogs (to flush or not to flush is another matter). They are good for covering shoes and cosmetic travel bags in a suitcase and for wet bathing suits and towels when coming back from the pool or beach. They make good wastebasket liners and car trash bags. As someone else said, they are the best way to prevent cross contamination in grocery items, like keeping chicken and fish from produce and dairy.
A while back when the ethanol movement was hot part of the push was that the residue like corn husks and cobs could be used to make plant based biodegradable 'plastic' bags. What ever happened to that? It seems like a good idea to use plant by products to make a product that a lot of people use for a lot of different things - and that way we can still save the trees.

Save trees and plastic bags by stopping the delivery of those unwanted, un-asked for, unread "newspapers" speeding cars throw out their windows at our driveways. There has to be a way to stop these things. They end up in the gutter and if you do not pick up the soaked pile of advertisements it gets washed down the storm drains.

I lived for several months in the DC Maryland area where they enacted these bag law and let me tell you it made what already resembles a third-world country an actual third world country.
First of all this law is just another tax. When you go into a drug store for a package of cough drops and where do you put them? In a bag. This thing is just another tax on the middle class.
You see people coming out of grocery stores, their arms full of what they have bought because they don't want to pay / can't afford to pay for bags. And there was no shortage of plastic bags in shrubbery, on the streets etc.
Don't support this new tax it is just the beginning of the slippery slope to making the U.S. a third world country.

If you don't want to use plastic bags that is fine with me. But keep your filthy cross-contaminated paws out of my bag of groceries.
This is nothing more than an attempt by a group of morbidly miserable people to interfere with well-beaning of innocent people. There are many environmental problems in this country and these miserable people are worried about plastic bags? What a joke.

Seriously it is not difficult. Our grandparents managed without plastic bags and found many ways to reuse what they bags they did receive. I have foldable reusable bags that can be carried in my purse. They are regularly washed. Also when I have bulk items I have a foldable storage container in my car that is cleaned regularly. Since we live in a drivable area (esp Middletown), it is a matter of carrying the items in the shopping cart to the car (which is more than likely used when u choose to have plastic bags) and place the items in a storage container.

@Ric I am sure the miserable people whom you think are worried about plastic bags are also worried about the larger environmental problems as well.

and to add to Eleanor's last sentence for those who choose to use plastic bags they should pay for the privilege of using it just as those who choose to use reusable bags pay for the bags and its care.

No do not add to what I said because you may not understand my meaning. Using a plastic bag is not a privilege or a right - it is a courtesy and a convenience extended to customers by a merchant. If the merchant chooses to provide plastic bags to customers, he should be allowed to - if a customer opts for them over paper or those cloth bags, or reusable bags, they should be allowed to. People who purchase reusable bags have made a choice - people who go for the free plastic bags provided by the merchant have made a choice. Just because you choose to pay for the type of bag that you use, does not mean that I should have to - I am sure the cost of those plastic bags is already factored in as an operational cost of doing business, and that customers already do 'pay' for them, just as other costs of operating a business as factored into the prices of goods and services.

Why does anyone believe or give any credability to Jeff Tittel and his merry man of fanatic nut-job AKA Sierra Club. If it was up to them, NJ would be implimenting a tax on air.

I am glad that some retailers such as Wegmans, Target and Starbucks to give rebates to those who bring their own bags and reusable cups
"The "Carryout Bag Reduction and Recycling Act" encourages retailers to offer a 5 cent rebate to customers who bring their own bags, promoting increased recycling. The bill would impose a fee of 5 cents for every paper or plastic bag used, penalizing those who pollute. "

Nickel an diming us to death. And now everyone will be bringing their germ bags into the stores together with their filth from home and spreading it all over creation. THANKS LEGISLATORS.

This was very entertaining. I wish I had a hershey bar but I don't. Think I am going to pop corn. Talking about all those beans got me an appetite.

Air pollution in Beijing goes off the index - http://news.yahoo.com/air-pollution-beijing-goes-off-index-053809937.html

More airborne pollutants are floating our way from China every day than have been produced by all the plastic bags we have ever used in this country.

The anti-plastic baggers have shown me the light and I am now one with them. There is so much more we need to oppose along with plastic grocery bags. We need to also oppose the use of plastic gloves, hats, and aprons by health or food workers. Also we need to oppose plastic sandwich bags - wax paper is a good substitute. Milk and sodas should be sold in returnable glass bottles - like it was in through the 1960's. Beauty products sold in plastic containers are no more necessary than plastic grocery bags and need to be banned. For the most part, guys live without them so women can also live without them. Plastic baby diapers are evil waste of plastic and also should be banned. Stop using plastic grocery bags is just nothing. Let’s ban all plastic. That would make Jeff and his ilk so ecstatic and that is all that matters. To heck with public health. Let’s keep our landfills nice and tidy.

Ric & Stan, snide comments aside, ultimately what would make the most sense would be the use of technology that promotes the decomposition of plastics used in the many industries, in a reasonable amount of time. Such technology already exists and there are companies out there that are producing water bottles that will degrade in 5 years instead of 450. Nobody's debating the fact that humans have benefitted from plastics, but at what cost? At what point do we (and you) realize that disposing of 270 million tons (NY times 8-14-11) of plastics into the environment each year is just plain wrong. I don’t think that anyone can make a case for why we shouldn’t be more responsible once that have looked at some of the numbers, or maybe the two great garbage patches floating in the Pacific and Atlantic. “Charles Moore has estimated the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch at 100 million tons”….how can anyone think that this is okay? Not addressing the root of these issues is just plain shortsighted.

Personally, I do not think bringing your own shopping bags is a bad idea. I too see the plastic bags on the side of the road or blowing around. I'm am willing to give anyone their due when a valid point is made, and Mr. Tittel did so here, in my opinion.

As for those of you who see fit to inject 9/11 victims into this thread - Obviously you were not affected like many of us by it. I hope you never have to know what it is like to deal with the loss and the after effects of something like that.

Up next, plastic medical waste. We've all seen or read about hypodermic needles on our shores. Perhaps all medical items should be made reusable? Let's not worry about germs. Wash those needles. Think of all the fish we can save.

Google UN Agenda 21. Read the first 10 pages. You will understand why this clown constantly posts these articles. Depopulation is the end goal of this nonsense. Stop being so gullible. We all care about the Barnegat Bay. Get the UN out of our country.

Why is it ok for a deer to crap in the woods but not a dog?

I eagerly await the response from a tree hugger who is hacking away on a laptop that was built in China with slave labor in a plant that is polluting the air and water, and was transported here on a cargo ship that burned fossil fuels and killed wildlife.

Barb is right. Yes it is the right thing to do to clean up after your dog but if you take a walk on the beach in the morning you will see hundreds of birds, a lot of rabbits and once in a while a fox and they have to 'go' somewhere.
And we use way more plastic every day than we take in by grocery bags - plastic utensils bought in the store and given with take out food, plastic hot cup lids, plastic containers, plastic packaging, plastic security tags on clothing, plastic hangers, plastic dry cleaning bags, plastic parts on appliances, plastic sun glass frames, plastic beach sandals, plastic parts on ink cartridges, pens, flashlights - need I go on? There was a big move about 20 years ago to get away from glass bottles on drinks and cosmetics and move to plastic (a lot had to do with liability for cuts on broken glass) and one of the biggest points of argument in OC lately was to save the trees by redecking the boardwalk with a vinyl based composite.
And Barb is right - these plastics are manufactured in places where they do not have our environmental dictators, by slave labor and then burn through thousands of gallons of fossil fuels to be delivered here - in plastic containers.

One way to cut in half the proliferation of these plastic bags is to make sure the checkout counter person combines more than one item in a bag. Too often they quickly take an item, bag it and move on to the next. Also, adding to the problem is the fact that people are putting the items from the produce section into provided plastic bags and then those bags are placed in other bags at the checkout counter. A while ago, when the "designer" supermarkets were offering reusable shopping bags, it was reported that, unless they were properly washed or laundered, they often grew dangerous bacteria.

Just another way for politicians to tax the American public. The 5 cent fee is not going to discourage many, and people will get used to paying it so it will never go away (remember when suitcases were free to travel with?) The 5 cent fee is not going to suddenly make the plastic bags "good" for the environment. Maybe I'll avoid all controversy by recycling old pillow cases and using them as a "grocery sack". That way I won't be taxed, can wash them easily so no one will complain about my bags and I can carry a lot more then the cheap bags they give/sell anyway.

Stores will not lower prices, it is just another way of changing the pockets that the money goes into. I wonder how many jobs get lost at the plants that make the bags to help generate the 0.05 additional revenue for the state?

SO new we have to pay to get a bag to carry our groceries out of the store????? That's absurd!! The reusable bags are nothing but germ carriers and I dont want to be bothered. Stop using plastic bags, they suck anyway. Make 1 turn on your way home from the grocery store and your groceries slide out all over the place. Paper is bth recyclable and biodegradable....I have no use for the plastic ones anyway. But to charge everyone for using store supplied bags is nothing but a hidden tax.
Another tax perpetrated by the environMENTALists!

More lefty BS. Rather than encouraging reuse of bags for the sake of it, people that do not are considered "polluters" - this is how Obama got re elected, by the kumbaya singing lefties....I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony --- hey you in front, don't drop that Coca Cola bottle while you're smoking that joint.....

The BAG police will be watching.

Payroll taxes just went up, now my paycheck is $2000 less for 2013, and my healthcare is more expensive than ever (Thanks Obama)
Just another example of people (Im looking at you Jeff) who want to bleed the middle class dry, 5 cents at a time.
Thanks for nothing.

If you can, watch CNBC's special on grocery stores in America. They can't operate like a typical retail business, which is why they get hurt so badly by Wal-Mart and Target.

You will find out why the cost of 90% of the store's items won't go up. You'll also find out why the penny they get from this will likely be put right back into lowering the cost of staple products, and why bread-eggs-milk-butter (which are, btw, government subsidized to keep prices down) will be further lowered if they feel consumers are pinched from the bag tax.

They'd rather charge you $0.05 for a perishable product they may have to throw away than making you pay for a bag that will last 1,000 years.

The meat and poultry you buy comes in a styrofoam container. We should ban those too. Open your pocket, I will put the London Broil in there. Don't worry, the blood is biodegradable. Just remember not to cross contaminate by putting beef and chicken in the same pocket!!!

Jeff just got the Hess refinery in Woodbridge closed down. Now 170 families have no income as well as all the store and delis nearby that the workers went to.

Oh, and gas will now become more expensive too for you people.

Great Job Jeff....

Who would listen to this JA jeff?

Guess a lot of people listen to Jeff and he got what he wanted Mick. Who cares about the rest of us is the question. What about the companies that supplied the parts to the refinery, contractors who came in and did welding and other skilled labor. What do you say to them Jeff....