You see them blowing in the street or beside the road. You’ll see them if you wander into the woods. You’ll see them in streams, rivers, and the ocean. You probably have a few in your car, maybe a bag full in your garage or under the sink or in the kitchen closet.

Each of us brings home hundreds of plastic bags every year — more than 100 billion total in the United States, according to the United States International Trade Commission. There’s widespread agreement that this is a problem for our environment, and widespread disagreement over the best thing to do about it. Can we break our addiction to plastic bags, which didn’t appear in grocery stores until the late 1970s, and embrace reusable non-plastic bags? 

The Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) contends that “Single use disposable items such as plastic bags threaten wildlife when they are mistaken for food and place unneeded strain on the natural resources used to manufacture plastic. ANJEC is supportive of all efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle single-use items and applauds Princeton for their leadership.”

Princeton’s leadership in mitigating the plastic bag problem manifests itself in several different areas, but proponents of a local ordinance imposing a plastic bag fee say Princeton can do more.

Bainy Suri, co-author of the proposed ordinance along with Daniel Harris, supports local recycling efforts, but stated that the only long-term solution lies not just in recycling but in reducing use of these bags. A fee is the most effective way to do that, she argued.

“This is a national and international movement that is picking up momentum,” Ms. Suri explained, “and Princeton could be a part of/leader of it.” Many cities throughout the country have either banned plastic bags or imposed a fee. with favorable results in reducing plastic bag use.

Ireland instituted a plastic bag use fee in March 2002 and saw a 90 percent drop in bag consumption. San Jose, California saw similar results when its plastic bag fee was enacted, and Washington, D.C.’s five cents-per-bag fee resulted in a reported 86 percent drop in use of plastic bags. England, following the lead of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, imposed a plastic bag fee just last month and hopes to see an 80 percent reduction in supermarket use of the bags. New York City, along with Princeton and many other cities and countries, is currently considering measures to reduce plastic bag use.

There are no local ordinances in New Jersey imposing plastic bag fees, though such ordinances have been proposed several times on the state level. Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert points out that there are legal issues that must be resolved before the city council can consider passing an ordinance. Ms. Suri described those issues as “nothing that can’t be worked out with a working group.” In a non-binding referendum a year ago, Mercer County voters turned down imposition of a plastic bag fee, but Princeton voters supported the measure by a 3-1 margin.

Meanwhile Sustainable Princeton and the Princeton Merchants Association are carrying on a voluntary recycling program called Reduce, Reuse & Recycle. Also known as the ABC campaign, this program urges businesses to “Ask” first if customers need a bag, for customers to “Bring” their own reusable bags and for everyone to “Collect” and recycle plastic bags.

“One of the advantages of the recycling program is that it addresses not just shopping bags but the great volume of additional plastic that comes into our homes including newspaper delivery bags, dry cleaning bags, and food packaging,” Ms. Lempert pointed out.

James J. McCaffrey, president of McCaffrey’s Market, stated that, in support of the recycling program, McCaffrey’s has accepted plastic bags from other merchants’ collection points and from the township collection site, collecting over 800,000 bags, about 200 pounds, since August 1.

In a May letter to Town Topics, Mr. McCaffrey affirmed his commitment to work closely with Princeton environmental groups but said that the proposed [plastic bag fee] ordinance “would place McCaffrey’s at a significant competitive disadvantage. None of our competitors operate within Princeton, which means that none of them would be subject to the mandatory bag fee.”

Ms. Lempert praised McCaffrey’s recycling efforts and described the store as “a terrific partner in helping manage the program.” Ms. Suri too, despite her commitment to bringing her ordinance before the council, described McCaffrey’s as “a good green community partner” and “a very convenient store with many loyal, local shoppers.” Ms. Suri stated that many merchants support the bag fee and that she did not think shoppers would turn away from McCaffrey’s or other local businesses to avoid a ten cent plastic bag fee.

Ms. Suri pointed out some of the drawbacks to recycling. McCaffrey’s recycled bags go to the Trex Company where they are recycled into material for decks and other building products, but most plastic bags go straight to a landfill, and they are not biodegradable. Even the Trex decking eventually ends up in the landfill, Ms. Suri added. She also cited a problem with many recycling stations not accepting plastic bags, even though ten new containers for recycling plastic bags are now in place around town. “At Princeton University,” Ms. Suri pointed out, “every single recycling bin is taking these bags.” Ms. Suri urged Princeton to carefully assess its recycling program and measure the results, which she feels will justify the implementation of her proposed ordinance.

Mayor Lempert, described the enormity of the problem and the challenges for Princeton in moving ahead on the proposed plastic bag ordinance without support on the state and federal levels: “Plastic bags are a huge environmental problem because so many of them end up in our waterways. Giant floating trash islands pollute our oceans. The largest ‘landfills’ in the world are not on land but in our oceans. The Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California, and is estimated to be twice as big as the state of Texas. In a perfect world, there would be a national or international effort to combat the problem, or at the very least, state legislation. However, like many other important issues of our day, inaction at the federal and state level has pushed the problem down to municipalities to address.”