NJ Lawmakers: Regulate Manufacturers To Stop Plastic Pollution

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — For those who want to combat the environmental dangers posed by single-use plastics such as straws and spoons, look to the source of the problem… the companies who make and profit from them, a pair of New Jersey lawmakers say.

On Nov. 2, the New Jersey State Senate approved a concurrent resolution that urges the federal government to “require manufacturers of single-use plastic products to assume responsibility for pollution caused by those products.”

SCR-136, which is sponsored by Sen. Richard Codey (District 27) and Sen. Bob Smith (District 17), passed by a vote of 25-5.

Instead of blaming the users of plastic bags and straws – like the proposed 5-cent fee on plastic grocery store bags that Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed last summer – the resolution takes a different approach, targeting the manufacturers of those products.

According to Codey, who represents towns in Essex and Morris county, “when science provides you information of significant value to benefit the well-being of the public, you act on it immediately.”

“Our waterways are polluted with plastics that are breaking down into micro-plastics and are entering our bodies when we consume fish,” Codey said. “If we don’t act on the information provided from the researchers at Rutgers and Princeton Universities, we’ll be looking at a public health crisis. Plastic is the new tobacco and we need the federal government to address this issue.”

Codey represents the towns of Caldwell, Chatham Township, East Hanover, Essex Fells, Florham Park, Hanover, Harding, Livingston, Madison, Maplewood, Millburn, Roseland, South Orange and West Orange.

“The plastic makers know the dangers of their product yet they don’t do anything about it,” said Smith, who represents towns in Middlesex and Somerset counties.

“This is a similar situation to how the tobacco industry understood the dangers of smoking and didn’t do anything about it,” Smith said. “We should be holding plastic making companies accountable as well.”

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Smith represents the towns of Franklin (Somerset), Milltown, New Brunswick, North Brunswick and Piscataway.

According to the resolution:

• “In New Jersey alone, approximately one million tons of plastic waste is generated annually, of which approximately 58 percent goes to landfills and 28 percent is incinerated.”
• “Plastic manufacture is the third largest manufacturing industry in the country, and manufacturers of single-use plastic products enjoy the financial benefits from the sale of these products but do not assume any of the costs or responsibility associated with the after-life of, or the environmental damage caused by, the products.”
• “Manufacturers should be held responsible for the environmental and economic costs associated with their products and be required to develop a waste management approach that promotes sustainability, efficient resource management, and mitigation of climate change.”
• “The Attorney General of the United States is urged to take action to institute litigation against manufacturers of single-use plastic products to recoup clean-up costs, water filtration expenses, and damages to natural resources caused by discarded single-use plastic products.”

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