Lakewood Mayor Ray Coles today weighed in on the recently proposed New Jersey law that would impose a $0.05 fee on plastic bags at stores.
The statement was in response to an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question:
“Hi Mr. Mayor,
It seems that unfortunately New Jersey may be headed down the far left path that some other locales have taken.
The legislature has passed a bag TAX, yes this a TAX on our working class [it only exempts low class with the SNAP & Exceptions not the working middle class]. However there is a savior, the new law will not supersede any preexisting local law.
Can you please save us by looking into enacting a law which will exempt the overtaxed taxpayers of Lakewood from this new TAX.
Thank you very much
PS Yes I vote in every election.
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Here’s the Mayor’s take on it:
Hi Shloimy,
I need to see the state law and what it does & does not allow. Local ordinances are usually not allowed to weaken or bypass a state law, so that needs some research.
I think we do need to do something about all the bags, straws, etc. that are clogging our landfills (and many times our waterways & beaches) and adding quite a bit to what the local taxpayer pays in landfill tipping fees.
I’ve never been a big fan of legislating this type of behavior. I think if more people were made aware of the damage this type of waste does to our environment they may make that choice themselves. It is hard not to be disturbed by pictures of whales washing up on a beach with hundreds of pounds of plastic clogging their digestive tracts.
My own family made the switch to bringing our own reusable bags to the supermarket a few years ago. I much prefer it now & have probably saved their purchase price many times over, by not having the heavy groceries I just bought end up smashed on the parking lot when the plastic bag splits open. I usually refuse the bags when shopping at Lowes or Home Depot. Every straw I refuse at a restaurant is one that does not end up in a landfill.
My hope is that law or no law, our town voluntarily makes the change and cuts down as much of this type of refuse as possible. Yes, buying reusable bags is an expense at first, but some of ours are years old. Maybe our schools can sell these bags as a fundraiser and do some good on multiple fronts! In the long run eliminating these types of bags, not taxing them, will make this a better place for our children & their children.
Ray
Horrible idea. I guesss this is what happens when a majority Republican town has a Democrat Mayor.
Reusable is not a realistic option. On a $200-400 weekly family grocery shopping. It just raises the cost of the shopping trip!
1. Is the fee for per bag or per transaction?
2. How does taxing our shopping bags = helping the environment?
its great for the paper bag guys!!!
I need the grocery bags to dispose dirty diapers in…. What am I going to use???
Use cloth diapers or buy trash bags.
With all due respect, lets be realistic. The straw you refuse at the restaurant is going to end up in a landfill anyway, this is just another way to increase taxes. Hey while were at it maybe we should tax the plastic bag and straw manufacturers 5 cents for every one that produced! Its just like Gov. Murphy, Raise the gas tax and raise back the sales tax!
If it was about the environment SNAP should also pay the fee.
Obviously it has nothing to do
Boxes are better for the environment and are easier to use when you have a large amount of groceries.
Really people? If you get 20 bags of groceries a week it will cost you a dollar! Ive been using the same reusable bags for years now and guess how much they cost me… $1.00 each. Yes it does take a little bit of effort to wash them from time to time, but we’ll worth it. I haven’t had one ever break and drop groceries all over a parking lot.
Totally agree with you. It’s so easy to bring your own bags. I hate plastic bags. They always tear and items are dropped out of the bags in the car that I find days later and under the car, that’s always fun. I tie them all in knots, which takes some time. So what if you have to spend 5 cents on a bag or two for meat, etc. I do reuse the plastic bags that didn’t rip, most do.
For large orders you can usually get a box for free.
Just Another Tax !!! Like the gas tax they said to compensate they will lower sales tax (which is no way near a compensation) now they want to raise the sales tax again. I could see how reusable bags will be a promotion for shop lifting when people bring their own. Then in turn stores will have to raise prices to compensate for that. Bottom line it’s another way to stick it to the taxpayers of NJ and incentive for taxpayers to move to a more conservative state where taxes are not so high!
No to the tax!
People in lakewood have large families and shop much more then others. Every bag adds up and a lot of bags end up getting reused for diapers ect. As it is, life is too expensive in lakewood.
We need to stop this.
Our town uses boxes now more than ever. Taxes really getting out of hand!
Yes. We will end up needing to buy the small garbage bags for diaper disposal and lining bathroom garbages which we now use with the plastic shopping bags. Its another hardship in raising a large family that we will have to pay for instead of the convenience which made our life that much easier. Just not fair.
They will probably end up taxing boxes too!
R u gonna stop using garbage bags too?!?! They r plastic ya know
I have it in CA it’s another stupid idea created by liberals.
It’s such a pain in the backside and a big tax.
Liberals are a disaster.
Shloimy – it’s the “poor” not “low class.”
@Tls take a poll if even one lkwd resident wants such a tax.
Maybe the point is to use cloth diapers so they can be reused and be better for the environment too ?.
Don’t the bags we would have to buy to throw out dirty diapers and line garbage cans also ruin the environment so isn’t it the same thing at the end? How about forcing the manufacturers of plastic shopping bags to make them biodegradable? Why put the burden on the tax payer?
I fully agree with the mayor and am so disheartened by some of these comments. i’m also frum and also have a large family b’h. i’m tired of the same excuses about large families etc. If you have a large family and are doing lots of shopping you are generating an enormous amount of plastic bags! all the more reason to be concerned. why is it not practical to have a stack of re-usable bags at home to bring along with you when you go grocery shopping? and while i do re-use my bags for diapers and to line every garbage pail in my home, lets face it, we have MANY more bags than garbage pails or diapers. enough to grab a bag on our way to work to put lunch in, to bring to the park for all our balls, to put our library books in…. the list is endless because we all have endless bags – because the supply always exceeds our demand for their use. fact is – plastic is horrible for the environment. fact is they never break down and end up in the oceans and destroy the beautiful world Hashem gave to us. Fact is if bags would cost us money we would use them more sparingly. We would find that we could carry our water bottles, our balls, our lunch, snack and everything in between in a cloth/re-usable bag.
“The Majestic Plastic Bag – A Mockumentary” is worth seeing
everyone relax!! we have it in israel and its not that bad. you know its really good we go shopping with bags that we leave in the car and are much easier to carry. less bags flying around the streets
by us it cost 10 agurot
I have a simple solution, why not give us a place to return the used bags to. Have the stores that issue plastic bags, have a drop off bin just for the bags. Then all we need is some enterprising young person to collect the bags and sell them for scrap.
Feel good legislation…Mr. Mayor how about doing something like this… there was a proposal somewhere I think NY that depending on the bag strength it will be taxed like the ones you get from Walmart ShopRite are junk let those be taxed and the ones from many local grocery stores are the thicker type and this can be excluded.. Please do something the legistlation says if there is prior ordinances it won’t overide so please act and create an ordinance.. I always reuse my plastic bags besides for the huge inconvenience this will cause people will have to start buying bags for lining garbage cans, throwing out diapers, and so many other uses!
Next is deli containers and foam containers. Bring your own pots to the store to pick up your chicken and deli.
I agree that preserving the environment is important but at the same time, everyone I know reuses shopping bags for diapers/small garbages etc. The only bags that are not reusable are the thin ones from stores like Walmart which I would agree should be taxed. As for bags ending up in oceans, can someone please explain how my plastic trash bags from my green bin end up in oceans? Most people that will pay this tax don’t leave them in the streets. And if the trash disposal process is the cause of them ending in oceans, maybe it’s time for the government to find better methods. I’m not sure why taxing us is the solution here if we are abiding by the law.
in eretz yisroel they istitued a 10 agurah ( equivalent to $0.03) tax per bag and it has curbed the use of disposible plastic bags drastically. at first people complained, but now people use less of them or come to the supermarket with their own strong reusable bags.
I can just see the store’s manager when I hand the check-out person 10 of those floppy cloth reusable bags to put my order in. There is nothing to keep them standing upright and open. It will now take twice as long for me to get checked out.
ANOTHER HORRIBLE IDEA FROM THE LEFT.
This is a TAX on everyone and don’t let your politicians fake you into thinking otherwise! The people that don’t have to pay the tax will pay it anyway in higher costs. That is fact! Of course the left won’t tell you that because they have never understood simple economics. Their track record proves that.
We must be diligent on this. We must scream CHAI V’KAYOM that this doesn’t happen.
NJ has lurched left and it’s up to the normal sane people to get it back.
What is wrong with paper bags? There are too many fees, fines, taxes. NJ is also proposing to raise sales tax and maybe gasoline tax.
I live in a town where there are no plastic bags, straws, take out containers or styrofoam. It’s really no big deal or inconvenience. The new recycled paper take out containers work. Our grocery stores do have small plastic bags in the bulk and produce areas. These are all biodegradeable. For those of you that ‘need’ plastic bags for diapers, dog or cat poo, go to a large chain pet supply like Petco. They have biodegradeable dog poo bags that will work for diapers as well.(Not that most disposable diapers will biodegrade.) It’s time the frum community gives some thought to their dependence on disposables. It’s becoming increasingly expensive to ship trash from the tri state area to out of state landfills. I’ve used some of the newer biodegradeable dishes and flat wear and they hold up well and can be recycled. (Where I live they get recycled in our yard waste bin.)
i’m frum and very impressed. which town do you live in?
I do not live in NJ I live in another part of the US.