New Jersey

Counties can't impose fees, so they pass bans. In the case of the New Jersey bill, since this would be a state law, it is just a fee. You can still get your plastic bags; you'll just have to pay five cents per bag. The merchant will keep only one cent, which will cover what they pay for the bags. The rest of the fee will go toward cleaning up Barnegat Bay. You'll also get five cents back for each bag you provide.

Many people comment that they use plastic bags to line their trash cans, but the goal here is to reduce plastic bag use. Before I started using cloth bags, I used to get many more plastic bags than I needed for trash. They used to fill up drawers; I didn't know what to do with them. Now that I exclusively use cloth bags, I buy trash bags. The trash bags are bigger, so the total amount of plastic is less. I buy trash bags made of recycled plastic whenever I can, and I'm experimenting with compostable trash bags. When I finally get composting service, all my trash will be dry, so I won't even need trash bags.

I agree that living sustainably is extremely difficult these days. But I worry that as a society, we can't continue living the way we do indefinitely.