How’s The Plastic Bag Ban Going In NJ? Could Apparently Be Better

New Jersey initiated the first ban on plastic shopping bags the Garden State has ever seen a few months back.

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Since it's been a while and residents should all be, at the very least, a tad more accustomed to having to bring our own bags with us into the grocery store, it's safe to say that we could probably do a little check-in to see how everybody's holding up without the old bags.

So, how's it going so far? Are you remembering to bring your own bags with you into each and every store you enter? According to NJ.com, people are NOT remembering too well. It happens so often, in fact, that apparently, people have resorted to swiping the grocery baskets at a few stores as a result.

Honestly though, did the powers-that-be here in the Garden State think that the repercussions of having no plastic bags would fall on anyone else besides the businesses? Absolutely not. Sure, if you're caught walking out with one of the store's shopping baskets, I guess they can press charges for stealing if they really wanted to. Not likely most stores will go down that road, though. So, with that being said, stores are having to order more baskets than before since they have to keep replacing all the ones being taken.

It's gotten so bad, in fact, that one ShopRite employee told NJ.com that her location didn't have shopping baskets at all at one point. Mary Ellen Peppard, the vice president of the New Jersey Food Council, reportedly told NJ.com that grocery baskets can cost $8 or more per basket. If NJ's grocery stores are getting down to zero baskets left in the store, imagine how much it's costing them to replace all those?

So, how is the plastic ban going here in New Jersey exactly? Overall, most people have adjusted. Still, the ones that haven't are making the ban a lot more annoying for grocery stores to want to enforce.

Source: NJ.com