To the Editor:

On Election Day, November 4, there will be a single-use shopping bag fee referendum on the ballot. Your opinion matters, so please vote on this non-binding referendum!

Mercer County is posing a non-binding question to gauge voter sentiment regarding whether a five cent purchase fee per single-use bag should be imposed at check-out when shopping at Mercer County stores.

Why add a five cent purchase fee to single-use bags?

Our landfills are overburdened. Our waterways are polluted causing marine life to suffer, and the recycling sorters are clogged and damaged.

As a result, taxpayer dollars need to be used to clean up all of this mess. It is estimated that New Jersey residents use over four BILLION bags each year! A five cent fee to single-use bags makes the shopper stop and think about whether they need to take that single-use bag instead of reusing one that they have brought from home.

The ultimate goal of this bag fee is to reduce waste and save tax payer money – and it is a proven approach to accomplish these objectives. Washington D.C., Austin Texas, Prince Georges and Montgomery Counties in Maryland, the entire state of California, and countless cities around the world all have mandated a fee for single-use bags and the result has been extremely positive in helping the environment.

This referendum is just to gauge voter sentiment. It will not actually impose the fee. That will be the next step should this referendum pass. All of the specific details of the program would then be further discussed and crafted. For more information about the single-use bag issue, please visit www.NJThinkOutsideTheBag.org.

The Princeton Environmental Commission, Sustainable Princeton, and the Princeton Board of Health hope that you vote YES for this referendum, so that Mercer County can lead the charge in N.J. to a cleaner community. Keep Mercer Clean and Vote YES on November 4!

Thank you,

Princeton Environmental Commission.

Sustainable Princeton,

Princeton Board of Health