New Jersey
Is New Jersey’s Plastic Bag Ban Working? Studies Give Mixed Reviews
NEW JERSEY — It’s been nearly two years since New Jersey banned stores and supermarkets from handing out single-use plastic bags to their customers, and the debate over the ban’s effectiveness continues to rage – with a recently released study adding new fuel to the fire.
But here’s an important question to ask yourself as you crunch the numbers, some environmental advocates argue: Can you trust a scientific study paid for by the plastic industry?
Gov. Phil Murphy signed the ban into law in 2020. It became active in May 2022. Learn more about what is allowed – and what isn’t – on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s website.
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Advocates of the ban have said it is reducing pollution and litter, arguing that New Jersey isn’t the only state with a bag ban – and they’re working all across the nation.
Critics have countered that plastic bag bans are a burden on businesses and their customers – and they aren’t nearly as effective as their supporters claim.
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The naysayers include Freedonia Custom Research, which recently released a study that says New Jersey’s bag ban has been a big bust.
According to Freedonia researchers, since the state is now relying on heavier reusable bags — most of which are made of non-woven polypropylene — three times more plastic (by the pound) is being produced than before the ban. Researchers also said that greenhouse gas emissions from the production of those bags have skyrocketed by 500 percent compared to 2015 levels.
“On average, an alternative bag is reused only two to three times before being discarded, falling short of the recommended reuse rates necessary to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions generated during production and address climate change,” the study says.
Read the full analysis and see its methodology here.
After the Freedonia study was released, critics of New Jersey’s ban leaped on it, citing it as proof that the controversial move has backfired.
“The data is in and it’s clear: NJ’s plastic bag ban actually increased our carbon footprint, with greenhouse gas emissions up 500 percent,” former governor candidate Jack Ciattarelli said on social media.
“Like everything else about Murphy‘s policies, what feels good doesn’t necessarily make sense/work,” he added.
NJ BAN IS ‘HIGHLY EFFECTVE’
There’s just one problem, advocates say – the study was paid for by the plastic industry.
According to Litter Free NJ, the Freedonia report was commissioned by the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance, which “represents the interests of U.S.-based manufacturers and recyclers of plastic bags.”
The study relied mostly on conducting interviews with “industry constituents” such as plastic bag suppliers, bag brokers and distributers, as well as grocery store retailers – not shoppers, Litter Free NJ argued.
Other studies have said that New Jersey’s plastic bag ban is indeed working.
In May 2023, the New Jersey Plastics Advisory Council – a state committee tasked with evaluating the ban – said it has been “highly effective.”
“There is little question that the law has been effective in reducing single-use bags,” the council said in their first-year report (read it in full here).
“From survey work conducted by the New Jersey Food Council, it can be extrapolated that approximately 5.5 billion single-use plastic bags and 110 million single-use paper bags were eliminated from entering the waste stream and environment by the supermarket sector alone from the effective date of the law on May 4, 2022 through the end of the year,” the report said.
The Jersey Shore is also looking cleaner thanks to the ban, the council said.
“Clean Ocean Action’s 2022 Beach Sweeps report compared data from 2021 to 2022 and showed a significant decrease in litter collected from items targeted by the Get Past Plastic Law, with 37.31 percent fewer single-use plastic bags … found along the Jersey Shore,” the report stated.
Another study published in January also argued that “plastic bag bans work.”
Based on data from the New Jersey Plastics Advisory Council and the U.S. Census Bureau, the state ban eliminates an estimated 5.51 billion single-use plastic bags per year – about 594 per person, researchers said.
That analysis was published by three nonprofit advocacy groups: Environment America Research & Policy Center, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, and the Frontier Group.
Read the full study and see its methodology here.
“I’m glad New Jersey lawmakers have decided to ban this ubiquitous yet completely unnecessary product in many of the stores where we shop,” said JoAnn Gemenden, executive director at the New Jersey Clean Communities Council, another supporter of the state’s bag ban.
“We are seeing real results,” Gemenden added.
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It’s been nearly a decade and a half since the Brooklyn Nets moved out of New Jersey.
The organization has completely revamped its vibe since switching states, ditching the red, white and blue look for a very basic black and white colorway.
The Nets have also intermittently changed the colors of the banners hanging up in the Barclays Center from red, white and blue to black and white, much to the chagrin of traditional Nets fans.
Despite the Nets now playing in a bigger market and being far removed from their days in the Garden State, some fans seem to hope for the Nets to make their return across the river. New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill was asked about the matter.
“I mean, would I support it? I ask about it all the time,” Sherrill said. “I love the idea. So, I have been pressing for that. I haven’t made a lot of headway yet; you know, maybe in my second 100 days.
“But I do think there is some work being done for some — I don’t know if I’m allowed to say too much about it — but some people are working on some different sports coming into the Rock.”
As time went on, the Nets eventually started to embrace more of their New Jersey roots, which started when they rocked a clean tie-dye jersey from the 90s during the 2020-21 season.
The next season, the Nets followed it up with uniforms commemorating their run in the 2000s, when the team got to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003 and endlessly broke the ESPN top 10 with each crazy Jason Kidd assist and Vince Carter dunk.
It’s fitting that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the latter of whom grew up in New Jersey as a Nets fan, got to rock these uniforms, helping boost the popularity of the New Jersey brand to a wide array of fans.
True Nets fans embraced the Continental Airlines Arena/Izod Center and the swamps of East Rutherford, getting to witness a winning basketball team for a fraction of the cost of the team mired in dysfunction that happened to play their home games at “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”
Not many marquee free agents would have signed up to play in New Jersey, but real fans remember the good times in the swamps, especially with Sly the Fox as the team’s mascot. Those times deserve to be remembered properly.
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ATLANTIC COUNTY, N.J. (WPVI) — Drivers heading to the shore on Friday afternoon saw slow-moving traffic for several miles coming off the Walt Whitman bridge, but many travelers said the start of the holiday weekend was smoother than they anticipated.
Aldara Madden, who was traveling with her friend Elana Maser, said the trip moved faster than she expected.
“I was expecting it to take a lot longer,” she said.
Maser added that they left school early to avoid delays.
“My mom and I do that every year and then we always stop here as our little pre-down the shore,” she said.
Others shared similar experiences.
“I’m coming from Bucks County, so I was worried there was gonna be some traffic but it really wasn’t bad at all,” said Erin McFadden of Churchville, who was headed to Ocean City.
AAA reported that while slightly more people are traveling by car this year compared to last, 2026 is projected to have the lowest year-over-year travel growth rate in more than a decade, excluding the steep drop seen in 2020 during the pandemic.
The organization attributes the slowdown largely to concerns over rising prices.
“Gas is ridiculously expensive and I think all the time before going anywhere these days,” said Debbie Maser of Philadelphia. “But this is our happy place and nothing can keep us away.”
A dreary weekend forecast may also be influencing travel patterns.
“I was thinking that, I wonder if there’ll be less congestion on the roads because of the weather,” said Kyra Wolin of Massachusetts. “It’s not looking to be too good this weekend with the rain.”
Still, many shore-bound travelers said tradition outweighs any concerns about rain or crowds.
“No not at all. You go down. You get it done,” said George Miller of Lansdale.
Eric Wolin of Massachusetts agreed: “Never, never. Margate’s a special place for us.”
As the unofficial start of summer begins, travelers said they remain committed to kicking off the season in their favorite spots, not letting rain, traffic, or high prices keep them away.
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This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.
From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? Get in touch.
As summer begins, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill is urging residents to limit lawn watering, and hand water flowers and shrubs as a drought warning continues. The warning, in place since December 2025, could turn into a drought emergency if conditions do not improve. The state has suffered eight consecutive months of below-normal rainfall, according to officials.
“New Jersey is experiencing a chronic water supply drought, the scale of which we haven’t seen in more than twenty years,” state geologist Steven Domber said in a statement issued earlier this month. “The indicators that we track closely are showing persistently dry conditions. With uncertainty for rainfall in the coming months, we need residents to conserve water today, to ensure we have enough to sustain our needs over the summer.”
The Department of Environmental Protection uses a variety of indicators to determine drought levels, including precipitation, stream flows, reservoir levels, ground water levels and demand.
In addition to the last two months, officials say, the state “experienced below normal precipitation for 20 of the last 24 months since September 2024,” despite heavy snowfall events this past winter that helped restore reservoirs in North Jersey.
“While we saw a little relief over the winter, New Jersey is feeling the effects of nearly two years of below-normal precipitation,” Sherrill said in a statement earlier this month. She urged residents to voluntarily conserve water.
New Jersey state climatologist David Robinson said that since precipitation has been below normal for most of the last 24 months, the recent winter weather did not provide enough water to help restore streams and groundwater.
Should a drought emergency be declared, mandatory water restrictions would be put in place. The last drought emergency lasted almost a year, between March 2002 and January 2003.
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