Wawa Gives Out Free Bags Wednesday, When NJ's Plastic Bag Ban Begins

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — Starting this Wednesday May 4, the strictest plastic bag ban in the nation will go into effect in New Jersey.

On that date, the state will be banning plastic bags in all stores, and paper bags will be banned at large grocery stores (think ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Acme, Trader Joe's, Walmart, etc.) Any grocery store larger than 2,500 square feet can no longer give their customers brown paper bags, even if they charge for them, as is the case in many towns.

Also, beginning at 7 a.m. this Wednesday, every Wawa store across the state will be giving away 1,000 free reusable bags with a purchase while supplies last. This includes all the Wawa locations in Woodbridge.

In total, Wawa’s 272 NJ stores expect to distribute 272,000 free reusable bags to customers throughout the state.

Also, Styrofoam take-out food containers will be banned in New Jersey starting Wednesday. By law, no store can require customers to purchase a reusable tote. Learn more at this state-sponsored website: https://www.bagupnj.com/

Eight other states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon and Vermont — already have plastic bag bans in place; however they all differ. For example, California's law only bans plastic bags at large retail stores. Hawaii's ban does not apply to brown paper bags.

New Jersey's ban goes the furthest in the nation by banning plastic bags, brown paper bags and Styrofoam (polystyrene) containers.

Any retail store that is not a grocery store can still provide paper bags. So Home Depot, women's clothing boutiques, etc. can still give shoppers their purchases in brown paper bags.

The goal of the new law, strongly backed by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, is to entirely phase out the use of plastic bags, pictured above.

"Plastic bags are one of the most problematic forms of garbage, leading to millions of discarded bags that stream annually into our landfills, rivers and oceans," Murphy previously said, calling New Jersey's ban "historic."

Any store that breaks the new law will be given a warning on the first offense and then fined up to $1,000 per day for the second offense, and up to $5,000 per day for the third and subsequent violations.

Here are some things in New Jersey that can still go in plastic bags:

• Dry cleaning
• Uncooked meat, fish or poultry
• Bags used to contain food sliced or prepared to order, including soup and hot food
• Bags provided by a pharmacy, such as a bag containing prescription medicine
• Bags for animals, such a bag containing fish you buy at a pet store

Contrary to popular belief, plastic straws have not been outlawed in New Jersey.

However, starting on November 4, 2021, restaurants could only provide a plastic straw to a customer if the customer asked for it. Stores may continue to sell packages of single-use plastic straws or drinks that come with a plastic straw, such as juice boxes.

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