New Jersey Residents Not Pleased with the Promotion of Custom Cloth Shopping Bags

According to a recent poll conducted by the Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind, the residents in New Jersey are not very pleased with the new bill that has been introduced with regard to plastic bags. According to this bill, all the residents, who use plastic bags or paper bags, need to pay the retailers an additional 5 cents on their total bill amount. The statistics show that around 56 percent of the residents are unhappy with this new bill, while a large group is unaware of such a bill being introduced in the state assembly itself.

A study to show the disapproval of the residents

The PublicMind poll was conducted on around 700 residents who are registered voters of the state.  The officials who conducted the poll called each of these residents to get their views on the new bill. In the end, the officials found out that only 39 percent of the residents in New Jersey approve of the new bill that would enforce a fee on the usage of plastic and paper bags, while a large section of the residents are against it; a sizeable section of the residents is not even aware of it.

The reasons for the officials to promote custom cloth shopping bags

Even though the residents seem unhappy about the bill, the officials have their own criterion for approving it. The officials feel that if this bill is passed into a law, the litter levels within the state will reduce drastically. The primary reason to put a fee on the usage of plastic and paper bags is to discourage their use. These bags are thrown around the city by residents, and cause a lot of pollution problems. So the officials want the residents to use custom cloth shopping bags instead.

If this bill becomes a law, the residents will have to switch over to reusable bags from the 1^st of January 2014. Apart from the residents, even businesses will be discouraged from using plastic bags within their premises. This bill has been sponsored by Senator Bob Smith, and will be put to vote in the coming few days. This bill will be voted on in front of the whole senate. The officials supporting the bill feel that it will be passed easily, as many other states within the US have passed a similar bill recently. Furthermore, with this bill being approved, the litter problems within the state will be curbed, and the state will be able to save up on the waste disposal expenses.

Source:http://www.northjersey.com/news/recordpolitics/Majority_of_NJ_voters_oppose_fee_for_disposable_shopping_bags_poll_finds.html