How’s that New Jersey Plastic Bag Ban Working for You?
Plastic bags strewn on the floor
The New Jersey plastic bag ban seemed like a great idea, but certain issues were not expected. Without giving it much thought at the time, I felt it seemed like a pretty good plan.
Getting Used to the Inconvenience
When we shopped at the big box warehouse stores we used boxes. Since the elimination of disposable bags, we now have easier access to the reusable bags. My problem was and still is that I keep forgetting to bring my reusable bags into the store. Then realizing too late I find myself bagging as I put the items into the car rather than into the cart. However, that’s not the main issue with the bag ban.
Study Finds New Issue
A study by Freedonia Custom Research (FCR) shows that disposable “bag volumes declined by more than 60%.” That sounds good until you learn that three times the amount of plastic is now being used to manufacture reusable or woven bags. Also, six times more “plastic was consumed to produce the reusable bags sold” since the bag ban.
Food Delivery Services
New Jersey stores also face the problem of what to use for their delivery services. Grocery shopping online has become an extremely popular thing in the Garden State. We have a variety of services to choose from. There’s Peapod, Amazon Prime Pantry, Hello Fresh, Fresh Direct, Instacart, and the list continues.
If you use any of these services then you may have realized another problem created by the law. Those of us who make our food purchases online are involuntarily collecting a large amount of the disposable bags that come with each order. This is an issue that was not considered by lawmakers when they voted to ban single-use bags.
Possible Solutions
There has been much success related to the ban. For example, fewer plastic bags blowing all over the state and ending up in lakes and streams. You don’t see them flying across beaches or down highways either.
A few new ideas are floating around. The first is to let grocery stores use paper bags, but only for deliveries. Waste would still be reduced because of the very small percentage of grocery purchases being delivered.
Another idea is to have the delivery companies use cardboard boxes like the ones offered at the big warehouse stores and some delivery companies are using them already. Perhaps the delivery services could collect and reuse the bags. If you’ve stockpiled reusable bags you may want to drop them off at your area food bank.
Where To Watch The 2024 Oscar-Nominated Films
The 2024 Oscar-nominated films are all great this year. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer snagged a whopping 13 nominations. Yorgos Lanthimos’ feminist fantasy film, Poor Things, was close behind with 11 nominations.Martin Scorsese’s historical crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon received ten nominations, while Greta Gerwig’s box-office smash Barbie, earned eight nominations. This year, 321 feature films were eligible for the Oscars, and 265 of those qualified for the Best Picture category. For the first time in history, three of the ten movies nominated for Best Picture were directed by a female, the most in Oscars history (Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, and Celine Song’s Past Lives).
Although many of the Academy’s favorite films only recently arrived in theaters, many of them are already available to stream, rent, or purchase online. So far, The Zone of Interest, Poor Things, American Fiction, Past Lives are only available to buy for $19.99 at press time. Anatomy of a Fall is available to rent for $5.99 or $6.99 on AppleTV+ and Prime Video, and YouTube and Google Play, respectively.
As we previously reported, the 96th Academy Awards will air live from the Dolby Theater on ABC, abc.com, or the ABC app. on Sunday, March 10 starting at a new earlier time at 7 pm ET, scheduled to end at 10:30 pm ET. A 30-minute pre-show will lead into the live show at 6:30. Jimmy Kimmel returns as host for the fourth time. Zendaya, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicolas Cage, and Al Pacino are among the first group of presenters for the awards ceremony. Also presenting are last year’s winners: Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Oscar winners Mahershala Ali, Jessica Lange, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong’o, and Sam Rockwell are also set to take the stage.
Keep scrolling to see how to stream all the Oscar-nominated feature films in the major categories:
Joel Katz is the Morning Show Personality, Assistant Program Director, Podcast Host, Voiceover artist, audio producer, and Digital Content Writer for Magic 98.3. Joel has been working in New Jersey radio since college and started at Magic in 2002 as the Morning Show Host, “I can’t think of another place where I’d fit more perfectly; it’s just a great company with awesome people.” Joel is married to Kathleen, his elementary school sweetheart (they were each other’s first dates at age 9), shares a birthday with his oldest son, Ty, and has twins, Kiera and Liam. Joel runs at least 3.1 miles every day and enjoys playing basketball, doing laundry, saving his turn signal for when he really needs it, kissing dogs through a fence, using coasters, making that cool noise by rubbing his fingers on balloons, and chasing after ping pong balls on a windy cruise ship.
