Single-Use Plastics Ordinance Takes Effect In Newtown Borough

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — Beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 17, restaurants and retail stores in Newtown Borough will no longer be allowed to provide plastic bags to their customers for groceries, merchandise purchases and takeout orders unless they have been granted an exemption.

Under the new single use plastics ordinance, which was adopted in March but takes effect today, customers will need to bring a reusable bag or be prepared to purchase a paper or reusable bag at the checkout register for a nominal fee.

Also under the ordinance, businesses and restaurants will only be allowed to give out single use plastic straws and utensils upon request. In addition, expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food containers would be prohibited.

For more information about the single-use plastics ordinance, click here.

Newtown Borough is the latest municipality in Bucks County to institute an ordinance banning single-use plastics.

In 2022, Solebury Township voted to ban single-use plastic bags along with plastic straws and polystyrene food containers. Doylestown Borough followed suit in 2023, implementing a ban on single-use plastic bags. And earlier this year, Newtown Township joined the movement, implementing a ban on single-use plastics in April.

Statewide bans are in place in New York, New Jersey and Delaware. To date, a statewide ban has not been approved by the Pennsylvania legislature. The bans in the Commonwealth have instead come from the municipal level, spurred on by PennEnvironment, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization based in Philadelphia that is working with municipalities in implementing and spreading the bans at the grassroots level.

According to PennEnvironment, every year Pennsylvanians use an estimated 4.75 billion single-use plastic bags. The bags are used for just a few minutes and then thrown “away," but there is no “away,” says the organization. Plastic bags and other single-use plastics end up in landfills, incinerators, or in the environment, where they can last for hundreds of years, if not longer, harming wildlife, waterways, and the public health.

An extensive study conducted by PennEnvironment in 2022 found microplastics in waterways throughout Pennsylvania and in concentrated amounts in fish, wildlife and in humans.

"The evidence is mounting that humans not only ingest microplastics, but that those plastics remain in the body and cause harm," says PennEnvironment. "It’s estimated that on average, humans ingest five grams of plastic every week, roughly equivalent to the weight of a credit card or single-use plastic bag. Microplastics has been found in human blood and even the lungs of living patients. And although not too much is known about the full scope of health effects of microplastics in humans, plastic, and the chemicals it contains, can cause endocrine disruption, hormonal effects, and reproductive disorders."

Since 2018, PennEnvironment said it has helped more than a dozen Pennsylvania municipalities write, introduce, and pass legislation targeting single-use plastics. These ordinances — from cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to communities like Doylestown and Newtown Township — impact more than 2.4 million Pennsylvanians and could eliminate over 9 million pounds of plastic waste every year, the organization says.