OPINION: Why New Jersey should repeal its bag ban

by Wells Winegar
November 10, 2025

Walk into any New Jersey kitchen and open the pantry. You’ll probably find a teetering stack of “reusable” shopping bags — many of them delivered with curbside orders you never asked for and will never use up. That pile tells the story of our state’s bag ban: a policy that set out to help the environment but quietly drove up material use, waste and frustration. It’s no surprise the issue is now on the campaign trail: Jack Ciattarelli is winning applause with a promise to rescind the ban (“you’re getting back your plastic bags”), while Mikie Sherrill says, “I think we shouldn’t be using plastic bags.” Politics aside, the underlying policy trade-offs deserve a clear-eyed look.

In 2022, New Jersey banned single-use plastic carryout bags — and, uniquely, also banned paper carryout bags at large grocery stores. The goal was less litter and cleaner waterways. But how a product is made, used and disposed of matters as much as what it’s made from. On that score, the ban has produced a string of unintended environmental side effects we can’t keep ignoring….

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