Following in the footsteps of DC’s successful bag fee, the Montgomery County Council has passed a 5 cent fee on disposable bags. The fee applies to both paper and plastic bags at nearly all retail establishments.
The fee is a win-win:
- If consumers keep using disposable bags, the county will now have an additional $1 million to help pay for cleanups of streams & rivers
- If consumers switch their habits to reusable bags, the county will have dramatically reduced its need to clean up streams & rivers
The Virginia General Assembly has not only refused to pass a disposable bag fee, it’s refused to even let communities like Arlington impose their own. So we don’t get the funding to clean up waterways and we don’t give consumers a nudge to change their habits – a lose-lose.
Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) has also introduced a national bag fee with proceeds going to fund conservation programs, but House Republicans seem way too busy trying to protect Big Oil subsidies to act on a bag fee.
Learn more about why a bag fee makes economic & environmental sense at TrashFreeVirginia.org.
