Please try to imagine.
You are driving to your favorite grocery store. Have a list. Your shopping cart is full. Everything is going well. until it reaches the register. In early May, New Jersey’s plastic bag ban began.
Supermarkets and grocery chains told NJ Advance Media they are doing their best to contain that disruption when the time comes. It may be inevitable that you don’t know all about the most stringent plastic bag ban planned in the United States. So it will be important to prepare for the new rules, store officials said.
When did the baggage ban come into effect?
Starting May 4, 2022, New Jersey will ban the distribution of single-use plastic bags and certain types of takeout food containers.
What does the bag ban include?
The ban prohibits stores, including retailers, from selling or providing single-use plastic bags for shopping.
Non-grocery stores and retailers as defined online by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection can still offer paper bags. Therefore, clothing retailers and small bodegas have no problem handing over purchases in paper bags or charging for paper bags.
However, large grocery stores over 2,500 square feet cannot hand out or sell paper bags at checkouts. According to trade publications, most grocery stores have him between 12,000 and 40,000 square feet.
New Jersey’s ban does not apply to single-use plastic bags that you can buy. Trash bags, pet trash bags, and ziplock bags are all still allowed in the state.
How are stores reminding customers about the plastic bag ban?
A sign in the parking lot. This is a notice from the PA system. social media posts.
Stores have a range of strategies in place to tell customers that a plastic bag ban is coming, remind them it’s in a few days, and finally tell them it’s arrived.
Stop & Shop spokesperson Stefanie Shuman said:
“Furthermore, we are working on a plan to offer free reusable bags in our stores on certain days coinciding with NJEDA board approved NJ Food Desert Communities. Given our overall focus on possibilities, we are confident that our customers are well prepared for the transition,” added Shuman.
Email tips and social media posts reminding shoppers of the ban are also expected, experts told NJ Advance Media.
“We are preparing for new statewide laws that go into effect in May by having in-store signage and a ‘plan of no bans’ to remind customers to bring reusable bags into the store. ShopRite believes the best bags are reusable bags, and we continue to work to ensure our stores and customers are prepared when the law goes into effect.
Lidl currently sells bags starting at $0.07 per paper bag and $0.10 per plastic bag, according to a company spokesperson. However, this he will no longer be allowed after May 4th.
Lidl spokesperson Chandler Spivey said: “This is a win for the environment and our customers as it encourages customers to bring their own bags when shopping and the cost of the bag is not factored into the cost of the product. I can. “
The New Jersey Food Council, a grocery lobbying group that specifically supported including restrictions on paper bags in the new law, also offers a downloadable social media toolkit online.
Related: New Jersey ban on plastic bags: Garbage, produce and pet trash bags still OK even as new law kicks in
Stop & Shop at Union. Beginning May 4, 2022, New Jersey grocers, food service businesses, and other retail establishments are prohibited from offering or selling single-use plastic carry-out his bags to customers. Tuesday, March 29, 2022.Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media
What can stores do to help customers transition to a plastic bag ban?
If a major grocery store were to call Patrick Hossey and ask how he could help customers move to New Jersey’s single-use plastic bag ban, he’d talk about cars.
“We are not just banning internal combustion engines. said: “Slightly off topic…to make it as easy as possible for the consumer and to provide a reliable bag alternative.”
Here are some reusable bags you can buy online.
Kelly Sendall, assistant professor of biology at Ryder University, who is eagerly awaiting New Jersey’s plastic bag ban, said, “Imagine how clean the roadsides would be if there weren’t any litter on the roadsides. Plastic bags are everywhere. ‘ said.
In addition to helping reduce illegal dumping on roads and other public places, Sendall said a bag ban could help states take further steps to become more sustainable. I got
But part of its mission is to help busy people navigate change. And basic reminders would go a long way, she said.
“There’s someone walking in the store who reminds me, ‘Hey, do you have any reusable bags?'” If not, then you’re no longer giving out plastic bags and you’ll need to go get them. A lot of people have it in their car and just forget to bring it to the store,” he says Sendall.
“It happens to many of us,” she said.
Still have questions about New Jersey’s plastic bag ban? Ask them here.
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To contact Stephen Rodas: [email protected]follow him @stevenrodasnj.