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plastic pollution vortex "the size of france"

TRENTON — Chris Christie today conditionally vetoed a bill that would ban micro-beads, the tiny polyethylene particles found in cosmetics and personal care products that have formed a garbage patch in the Atlantic Ocean slightly larger than France.

Because micro-beads cannot be filtered from household waste water by sewage treatment plants, they find their way into the open ocean, where they poison fish and kill millions of seabirds, whose guts become so clogged with the beads they starve to death. While the North Atlantic trash vortex is hundreds of thousands of miles in size, it is mostly made up of trash fragments ranging from a millimeter to the size of a pencil’s eraser.

In his veto message, Christie’s said the bill’s penalties would have unintended consequences on small businesses.

Under the measure ( A-3083), retailers who flouted the ban would be subject to penalties of up to $10,000 per product, per day, which Christie described as “draconian.”

“A few tubes of out-of-date face wash combined with overzealous enforcement of this ban could easily drive a small business owner into bankruptcy,” Christie wrote, sending the bill back to the Assembly with a request to lower such fines to a maximum of $500 per violation, and to remove language concerning offenses that are “continuing in nature.”

Christie also recommended that it be made clear that the penalties “may be pursued only by the Commissioner of Environmental Protection, and not private parties.”

The Legislature will now decide whether to concur with Christie and make the changes, attempt to override his veto, or let the bill die.