It's been almost three years since New Jersey banned single-use plastic bags.

We've all become accustomed to storing many of them that we've collected over the years in the back seat of our cars or kitchens. The collection grows ever larger each time we forget to bring one in with us. Some people just toss them when they get home, which only adds in greater measure to the landfill problem.

Some people who get their groceries delivered simply toss them in the garbage and chalk it up to part of the expense of having the food brought to their home. The other night I went to the supermarket to get just one thing, so I didn't bring one of the eight or so bags that fill the back seat of my car.

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Canva / Townsquare Media illustration
Canva / Townsquare Media illustration
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I ended up buying four things that I saw I needed on my shopping trip to the store. So, I awkwardly carried out the four items like a shoplifter.

Sure, I could have purchased yet another bag in the store, but I always get this feeling of extreme resentment in doing so. We resent the virtue-signaling, pompous, out-of-touch, phony do-gooder politicians that made this unnecessary inconvenience another annoying part of our daily lives here in New Jersey.

It's particularly annoying at convenience stores where you often see people struggling to get their three or four things back to the car without dropping them.

Canva / Townsquare Media illustration
Canva / Townsquare Media illustration
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New Jersey is one of just 12 states in the country that go through this pointless exercise, while the idiots that forced this nonsense continue to pat themselves on the back for saving the planet.

It's so refreshing to be in one of the other 38 states that don't play this silly game. A total of 10 states — Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi and Wisconsin have preemptive bans on banning plastic bags, legislation aimed at preventing bag bans from ever being introduced. 

Unless we have wholesale changes in the Legislature and Governor's Office in Trenton, there's no chance that kind of common sense, citizen-friendly legislation won't happen here. This is a gubernatorial election year here in New Jersey, so we can hope ... and dream.

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Gallery Credit: Stacker

LOOK: Here are the pets banned in each state

Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.

Gallery Credit: Elena Kadvany

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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