Point Pleasant Beach Bans Plastic Shopping Bags

Another Jersey Shore town has taken action against plastic shopping bags.

The Point Pleasant Beach City Council approved an ordinance on Tuesday night that banks single-use plastic shopping bags. Cloth bags labeled "I love Point Pleasant Beach" will be distributed instead.

Point Pleasant Beach says it's seeking to "conserve resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste and litter and to protect the public health, welfare, and safety."

That, the borough says, includes the protection of the environment, waterways, and wildlife in an attempt to "protect and increase the quality of life for the borough’s residents and visitors," according to the ordinance.

"The borough’s taxpayers currently bear the costs associated with the negative effects of plastic, single-use carryout bags on the solid waste stream, drainage, litter, and the negative consequences of the foregoing environmental impacts," according to the ordinance.

Single-use, plastic carryout bags can still be used by businesses or stores to sell bait.

Mayor Stephen Reid told News12 that the ordinance has the support of businesses. "When you go to a lake and look around beautiful plantings and see the paper bags hanging in a plant, you know something is wrong,” he told News12. “It's not a good fit for Point Pleasant Beach."

Other towns that have taken similar measures include Longport, which recently passed a single-use bag fee ordinance. Last year, Long Beach Township adopted an ordinance that bans commercial establishments from providing customers with single-use bags.

The Point Beach ordinance notes that, in 2016, as many as 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year and an estimated less than 5 percent of that plastic is recycled. More than 380 billion plastic bags and wraps are used each year

The ordinance also notes that plastic garbage end up in the ocean each year. "No body of water, waterway, beach, or shoreline is unaffected by this pollution, as ocean currents and waterways that flow into the oceans can transport plastic waste tossed into the water from the borough’s shoreline to Australia and vice versa," according to the ordinance.

Seabirds, fish, and other marine and land-based animals mistake plastic for food, while others can become entangled in the trash, leading to exhaustion, starvation, and eventual death, according to the town.

Google Earth photo