By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Mercer County voters want to "bag it" for free — never mind a suggested 5-cent fee on disposable plastic shopping bags.
That was the message voters delivered at the polls Tuesday, in response to a Mercer County referendum question asking whether they would support a fee on bags provided by grocery, drug or convenience stores.
The question was placed on the ballot through a joint resolution of the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders and Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes. Implementing a 5-cent fee would be an incentive to use recyclable cloth bags, thus avoiding the fee.
Countywide, the non-binding referendum question was rejected by 42,702 "no" votes to 27,304 "yes" votes. If the question had been approved, any fee would have had to be enacted by the state Legislature — not by Mercer County.
Voters in Lawrence Township turned it down by a vote of 3,950 against it to 2,917 for it. The results in Hopewell Township were similar, with 3,406 "no" votes and 2,292 "yes" votes.
But Princeton voters approved the measure by a vote of 4,274 to 2,385. Voters in Hopewell Borough also approved it 400 to 265, as did voters in Pennington Borough, who gave it 465 "yes" votes and 374 "no" votes.
All municipal vote tallies are unofficial and have not been certified by Mercer County officials.
Think Outside the Bag NJ, which is a coalition of groups dedicated to reducing plastic bag pollution in New Jersey, was behind the referendum question. The group would like to put a fee on all single-use shopping bags — plastic, paper, biodegradable and compostable, according to its website, www.njthinkoutsidethebag.com.
Noemi de la Puente, speaking on behalf of the coalition, said she did not know why the referendum question failed.
"I can say, when I was engaging with the public, there were a couple of reasons (offered) — Mercer County has no authority to tell stores what they can and cannot sell, and the other reason is, ‘where does the money go,’" Ms. de la Puente said.
"People were reluctant to vote for a fee when they don’t know where it will go. It was not overtly stated where it would go and it was enough of a question that people did not feel comfortable voting for it," she said. County officials agreed that the issue would have been decided later, she added.
Ms. de la Puente said that while she was disappointed in the outcome, she was not surprised. It is difficult to change the status quo. But it having on the ballot is a means to open a conversation and a way to introduce the issue, she said.
Tahirih Smith, the acting executive director of Sustainable Lawrence, also said she was disappointed by voters’ rejection of the question. Sustainable Lawrence belongs to the Think Outside the Bag NJ coalition.
"It is disappointing that the majority of voters could not see the importance of allowing the ‘plastic bag’ conversation to advance to the next level. The reality is that we are delaying the conversation and allowing the problem to grow exponentially," Ms. Smith said.
"I think most people are scared by the idea that this could signify just another tax for the residents, and not a real measure for curtailing the use of those disposable single-use bags. I can only conclude that voters allowed the scare of the ‘tax’ word to influence their thinking," she said.
The result of the failed referendum is that "we are in fact agreeing to continue to carry the higher expense of dealing with these bags polluting our streams, trees, parks, streets and homes every year," Ms. Smith said.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the average American uses 500 single-use shopping bags every year. Nationwide, it totals 157 billion bags annually — and of those bags, 183.2 million are used in Mercer County.
Ms. de la Puente and Ms. Smith agreed on the need for more public outreach and public education.
"We are confident that when people understand the problem, they will take action to stop carrying and paying for the real burden of waste these bags produce, and the extended consequences of polluting our own habitat," Ms. Smith said.

