Will Plastic Bottles Join Straws and Bags on NJ’s Banned List?

If one New Jersey lawmaker has his way, we may soon be using our paper straws to sip our drinks out of a paper bottle.

Okay, so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure feels like that's where we're heading.

Maybe, we need to stop letting our representatives travel.

It seems like when they do travel, they return with more ideas for ways to restrict what we do.

Let's review our current state of affairs.

We have to proactively ask for a straw if we want one.  Many restaurants now use paper straws that seem to melt after a few sips.

Now that single-use bags are no longer available, we have to buy reusable bags.

The problem with those is many of us forget them, and now we have a closet in our home dedicated to all the bags we bought.

What's next?

If Democrat Assemblymember Joe Danielsen, of Somerset County has his way, those plastic bottles of water, soda, and juice that we buy, will be a thing of the past.

• More:  NJ environmentalists could next target plastic-water bottles (nj1015.com)

To be clear, no bills have been created yet, but Danielsen told Politico that he got the idea while visiting towns in Massachusetts that prohibit those plastic bottles.

As you can imagine, something like this would put a crimp in businesses like Wawa, 7-11, and gas stations that feature the grab-and-go concept.

The ban Danielsen observed featured the smaller bottles and not the two-liter types.

What would replace the plastic bottles?

Perhaps glass, aluminum, or paper.