Reported by Cassie Tammy Wang
On October 15, 2019, the Greater Princeton AYLUS (GPA) Leadership Team attended a regular business meeting of the Council of West Windsor Township (217 Clarksville Road, West Windsor, NJ 08550). By 7 pm, along with the Mayor, clerks, and five Council members, nearly a hundred of West Windsor residents showed up at the meeting.
Signed up for public comment, GPA President Cassie Wang, Vice President Zihui (Alisa) Xiao, and Secretary Claire Huang, representing 254 AYLUS members in the Greater Princeton area, spoke up to support an ordinance proposed to ban or reduce the usage of single-use plastic bag in the West Windsor.
For the first time, AYLUS members in the Greater Princeton area put their influence on the local legislation. We will not regret for doing the right thing for our environment, for our residents, and for the children, although children are only 25% in the population, they are 100% for the future!
Participants (1 hour for all): Zihui (Alisa) Xiao, Claire Huang, and Cassie Tammy Wang
Below we wanted to quote the important ordinance proposed to ban or reduce the usage of single-use plastic bag:
Across the globe, over 130 countries have taken actions to ban or reduce the usage of single-use plastic bags. China introduced a fee on commercial single-use plastic bag over ten years ago, a change that resulted in a drastic 66% decrease in the usage of single-use plastic bags in merely the first month of implementation. India saw a static increase in the number of states introducing similar laws and finally passed a national level ban recently.
Out of all fifty states within our Country, California became the first to enact related legislation, imposing a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags in retail stores in August 2014. Since then, fifteen states including Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Wisconsin have passed similar laws to ban or reduce the usage of single-use plastic bags.
In the State of New Jersey, while the state legislatures have been talking about it, it remains in deadlock. More than 36 towns and municipalities have taken local action to enact local plastic bag reduction ordinances. Many other cities and townships, like West Windsor, are in the process of passing a similar ban.
Within our own community, young students have taken a lead to voice their concerns regarding the inability of our government to take actions to protect the environment, which they would need to bear the consequences in their future.
Action on this matter is already long overdue, and that is why we must act NOW! Every day of delay results in more negative impact to our environment from single-use plastic bags. We owe it to our children and the generations to come. Let us choose to stand on the right side of history to take action.
Watch the video:
https://www.westwindsornj.org/TC-documents/2019/tc-video-101519.html
