Plastic and Styrofoam

Get Past Plastic

Plastic bags are OUT. Bring your own reusable bags.

Beginning May 4, 2022, retail stores, grocery stores, supermarkets and food service businesses were prohibited by New Jersey law (P.L. 2020, c. 117) from providing or selling the familiar single-use plastic bags to pack goods for customers to go. The law is designed to reduce the pollution these bags cause. Here are the businesses defined by this new law:

  • Any store, which includes grocery stores, convenience stores, liquor stores, pharmacies, drug stores, or other retail establishments.
  • Any food service business that sells or provides food for consumption on or off the premises, including, but not limited to, establishments such as a restaurant, café, delicatessen, coffee shop, convenience store, grocery store, vending truck or cart, food truck, movie theater, or business or institutional cafeteria, including those operated by a government entity.

Paper bags at supermarkets are OUT. Bring your own reusable bags.

In addition, grocery stores larger than 2,500 square feet (supermarkets) may not provide or sell single-use paper carryout bags, and instead may provide or sell only reusable carryout bags. Reusable Carryout Bags are defined thusly by the law:

  • Be made of polypropylene fabric, PET nonwoven fabric, nylon, cloth, hemp product, or other washable fabric
  • Have stitched handles
  • Be designed and manufactured for multiple reuses

Many of us already own one or more reusable bags. It’s a matter of getting into the habit of bringing them on your shopping trip.

Plastic bags are a NO-NO for holding your curbside recyclables.

Please do not put single-use plastic bags in your curbside recycling containers, either by themselves or as holders for cans, bottles or other recyclables. Plastic bags cause chaos at the plant that processes our recyclables, clogging gears and rollers and forcing shutdowns of the machinery. We risk paying penalty fees for “dirty” loads. Single-use plastic bags can be recycled at most supermarkets or at the Westfield Conservation site on Lambert’s Mill Road where Fanwood residents are welcome for this purpose.

Polystyrene food containers are OUT

Beginning May 4, 2022, the law prohibits all persons and food service businesses from selling/offering for sale any polystyrene foam food service product and prohibits all food service businesses from selling/providing any food served in a polystyrene foam food service product.

The following products are exempt until May 4, 2024 unless otherwise extended by the DEP:

  • Disposable, long-handled polystyrene foam soda spoons when required and used for thick drinks.
  • Portion cups of two ounces or less, if used for hot foods or foods requiring lids.
  • Meat and fish trays for raw or butchered meat, including poultry, or fish that is sold from a refrigerator or similar retail appliance.
  • Any food product pre-packaged by the manufacturer with a polystyrene foam food service product.
  • Any other polystyrene foam food service product as determined necessary by the DEP.

A “polystyrene foam food service product” is defined as a product made, in whole or in part, of polystyrene foam that is used for selling or providing a food or beverage, and includes but is not limited to a food container, plate, hot or cold beverage cup, meat or vegetable tray, cutlery, or egg carton.

Further exemptions and requests for waivers for polystyrene foam food service products may be submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on forms to be prescribed.

Plastic Straws are still IN by request only at food service businesses

Beginning on November 4, 2021, food service businesses were required to only provide a single-use plastic straw to a customer upon request by the customer. Food service businesses are required to keep an adequate supply of single-use plastic straws. Stores may continue to sell packages of single-use plastic straws and provide/sell a beverage pre-packaged by the manufacturer with a single-use plastic straw, i.e., juice boxes

The NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s detailed website with all the new plastic and polystyrene rules is here: https://www.nj.gov/dep/get-past-plastic/