New Jersey’s 2022 ban on plastic bags may have actually increased greenhouse gas emissions and the use of plastic while serving as a windfall for grocers, according to a newly-released report.
Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration effectuated a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags in May 2022 intending to reduce pollution, but the policy appears to have actually increased consumption of plastics, according to a new report by the Freedonia Group, a “premier international business research company.” While the ban appears to have achieved the opposite outcome as intended, it has proven to be a boon for retailers in the state.
The volume of single-use plastic bags in the state declined by about 60% after the ban went into place, according to the report. However, the transition to reusable plastic bags increased plastic consumption by nearly 300% to produce the more durable replacements. (RELATED: ‘Climate Virtue Signaling’: Another Blue State Commits To Banning New Gas-Powered Car Sales By 2035)
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Additionally, about six times as much woven and non-woven polypropylene (NWPP) plastic was used to make the reusable replacement bags, which is a plastic that is not typically recycled in America, according to the report. NWPP “consumes over 15 times more plastic and generates more than five times the amount of [greenhouse gas] emissions during production per bag” than the products used to make single-use bags.
The Freedonia Group also conducted an extensive cost analysis to determine what impact the policy has had on the front-end business operations of grocers in the state. The report found that the typical store can generate $200,000 of profit at a given location by selling the reusable bags, which are used three times or less on average before being thrown out.
That average profit means that one major retailer in the state can make approximately $42 million each year across all of its locations simply by selling the reusable bags, according to the report. The reusable bags favored by Murphy’s single-use ban are typically used fewer times than recommended, and they do not actually meet the “rates necessary to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions generated during production and address climate change.”
Local environmentalists have given credit to the policy for reducing the amount of waste piling up along the state’s beaches, according to WHYY, a local media outlet.
Murphy’s office did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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