The clock is ticking down to the end of the plastic bag era in New Jersey, with a statewide ban set to take effect May 4.

While many of us grapple with how we're going to take home our groceries or line the kitchen trash can without the super convenience of plastic bags, it's worth taking one look around the state to see how we got here.

Look at the beaches. The forests. The roadsides. The parking lots. And what you'll see, everywhere, is plastic bags. The extent of plastic bag litter is so extensive that it often seems impossible to take a 360 degree glance around you and not see a plastic bag. What becomes clear - no matter what you think of the law - is that somehow we humans were simply unable to handle plastic bags. Unable to now throw them on the ground or have them blow away.

On this episode of Brian's Positively New Jersey, Brian Donohue travels from the Great Falls of Paterson to the beaches to the Pine Barrens to see how plastic bags cover the landscape. And how, when it comes to the ban, we have no one to blame but our own sloppy selves.