Trenton, NJ – Clean Water Action played a pivotal role in securing landmark legislation on plastics and PFAS as well as on a path to advancing additional safeguards and polluter pay policies in the next legislative session, like Climate Superfund (now named the “Polluters Pay to Make More NJ More Affordable Act” - S3545).
After a tremendous all-out effort, two bills (S1042/A1421 and S3695/A5159) that ban PFAS are now on the governor’s desk along with Skip the Stuff (S3195/A5157). PFAS, a.k.a. “forever chemicals” will be banned from certain consumer products and firefighting gear. Australia eliminated PFAS from firefighting gear over ten years ago. They have done this while still protecting workers in dangerous situations and the environment from further contamination. Learn more.
Skip the Stuff will save businesses money as it offers its customers the option to ask for single use utensils and condiments (typically all plastic) rather automatically ending up with a bag of unwanted items that ultimately end up in the trash. A Red Bank (NJ) case study outlines the benefits of its local ordinance – a 94% reduction in single use disposables. This is in contrast to the over 40 billion single use plastic forks, knives, and spoons that are discarded each year in the United States. Most are never used, an equivalent of over $200 million of unused cutlery.
“Skip the Stuff asks us to only take what we actually need,” says Marta Young, Clean Water Action’s Zero Waste Specialist. “New Jersey is being a leader by passing Skip the Stuff, reducing single-use plastics while respecting consumer choice and supporting local businesses. We are the first state in the nation to achieve Skip the Stuff policies on this scale.”
Climate Superfund Act (S3545) achieved many significant milestones this legislative session. A huge, coordinated grassroots effort (130+ groups) resulted in over 46 Assemblymembers and 19 Senators becoming co-sponsors; 65 towns and 2 counties passed resolutions in support and 135+ local officials signed a letter advocating for its passage. We succeeded in moving it out of various committees (including Senate Budget and Appropriations) but ran out of time trying to get it to the Assembly and Senate floor for a final vote.
“We are confident in making big fossil fuel extractors (like Exxon-Mobil) pay $50 billion over 20 years for their contribution of greenhouse gases in NJ,” stated Amy Goldsmith, NJ State Director, Clean Water Action. “It is only fair that these same polluters pay their fair share for climate resiliency measures that better protect communities and economy from future climate harms.”
While Clean Water Action led these efforts to victory, we did not succeed on our own. Clean Water Action is a co-leader of a state-wide plastics coalition and EmpowerNJ. In the next legislative session, we plan to advance additional plastics reduction policies with a focus on packaging, getting Climate Superfund over the finish line and adding several more restrictions on PFAS and other toxic ingredients in consumer items (e.g. apparel, menstrual, incontinent and other personal care products, artificial turf and more). Special attention will be given to products that target women of color as their products contain ingredients that are many times more toxic than those marketed to white consumers.
“We are excited about working with our current legislative champions in the NJ Assembly and Senate next session as well as adding newly elected, Clean Water Action endorsed Assemblymembers to the pro-environment column when our bills come up for a vote,” concluded Molly Cleary, Environmental Advocate at Clean Water Action.
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Since our founding during the campaign to pass the landmark Clean Water Act in 1972, Clean Water Action has worked to win strong health and environmental protections by bringing issue expertise, solution-oriented thinking and people power to the table. Learn more at www.cleanwater.org/nj.
Skip the Stuff is part of a larger Clean Water Action ReThink Disposable campaign.