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Bag Up Cherry Hill
Don’t let May 4 catch you by surprise, it’s time to Bag Up Cherry Hill!
As New Jersey’s ban on single-use bags gets closer, Mayor Susan Shin Angulo, Township Council and the Cherry Hill Green Team encourage residents to bring reusable bags when heading out to shop or eat, as the ban on providing or selling single-use bags in all retail, grocery and food service businesses goes into effect on May 4.. Together, we can help make our community cleaner, more sustainable, and better prepared for the future ahead. Keep an eye on the Township’s website and social media pages in the coming weeks for more information about the new law, and how you can pick up your own free Cherry Hill reusable bag!
With New Jersey’s ban on single-use bags going into effect on May 4, residents and business owners may still have some questions about what the law means and how it will be implemented. Some key points include:
🚫 All Businesses Impacted: The law prohibits all stores (including retail), food service businesses, and grocery stores from selling to, or providing their customers with, single-use plastic carryout bags.
🏬 No Paper or Plastic Bags at Supermarkets: In addition, grocery stores larger than 2,500 square feet may not provide or sell single-use paper carryout bags, and instead may provide or sell only reusable carryout bags.
✔What a “reusable carryout bag” is: It must be made of polypropylene fabric, PET nonwoven fabric, nylon, cloth, hemp product, or other washable fabric; and have stitched handles, be designed and manufactured for multiple reuses. There is no minimum thickness for a bag to be considered reusable. No single-use plastic carryout bags, regardless of the thickness of the plastic, are allowed to be provided or sold.
🔜Takeout and other styrofoam containers also banned: The law also prohibits all persons and food service businesses from selling/offering for sale any polystyrene foam food service product and prohibits all food service businesses from selling/providing any food served in a polystyrene foam food service product. Some products are exempt until for the next two years, but will be banned on May 4, 2024, such as disposable, long-handled polystyrene foam soda spoons when required and used for thick drinks; portion cups of two ounces or less, if used for hot foods or foods requiring lids; meat and fish trays for raw or butchered meat and any food product pre-packaged by the manufacturer with a polystyrene foam food service product.
For more information, visit: nj.gov/dep/get-past-plastic