Top Stories

N.J. Town Looks To Ban Plastic Grocery Bags

RED BANK, N.J. (CBS) ― It's estimated there are nearly 1 trillion plastic bags in use worldwide every year, much of which experts say end up in landfills or water systems that can harm the environment. Now there's a global push to ban their use, with one New Jersey town paving the way.

The "paper or plastic" quandary may soon be settled once and for all in Red Bank, N.J. supermarkets.

"What we're asking to do is eliminate some of those ugly looking white plastic bags you see floating all over in the river and trees," says Red Bank Council Member Michael DuPont.

Legislators want to sack the plastic satchels used by supermarkets and convenience stores because they can't be composted.

"It is a cost to the taxpayers to recycle them number one, and number two, they do pose an environmental hazard to our waterways, our aquatic life, for our birds," says Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna.

The borough council estimates it costs the town 17 cents a bag to dispose of the shopping bags and wants to start fining businesses $100 as of January 1. Some residents say good riddance to the plastic pouches.

"I think it's a good idea," one shopper told CBS 2.

"The plastic bags just don't have much of a purpose," added another.

From Australia to the United Kingdom and all across the U.S., politicians and corporations are also pondering banning or taxing plastic bags.

"There are economic realities that we need to take into consideration as to what the prices are, what's it's going to financially cost businesses to be in compliance," says Nancy Adams of the Red Bank River Center.

But the bans have been controversial because plastic bags are cheap, convenient and there are concerns that paper bags can contribute just as much to the world's pollution problems. Still, Red Bank shop owners say they're now jumping on the bag ban bandwagon.

"We have several hundred bags that are plastic. We're gonna be using them up and come January we're gonna be using ecologically friendly bags," says Alan Fisher of Fisher Diamonds.

Another complaint about plastic bags: experts say they take 12 million barrels of oil to make each year.

Grocery chain Whole Foods recently started to phase out all plastic bags and a new law requires more than a thousand New York City supermarkets to take back and recycle their plastic bags.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

---