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Can you spare a nickel? How about a dime? How about three?
In Austin, Texas recently for a trip, I was in need of a plastic bag to lug some small items back to the Air BnB from the local H-E-B grocery.
30-cents, I was told by the clerk.
Yep, in Texas, or at least at the Austin H-E-B it’ll cost you thirty cents to obtain a ‘puncture proof’ shopping bag with which to carry items or food back to your car or home.
Makes the MoCo bag “fee” (or is it a tax?) of 5-cents seem downright affordable.
Where did MoCo bag fee come from?
But where did the MoCo bag fee come from? Like so many policy ideas and regulations and tax and spend schemes, it came from Berkeley, California. Montgomery County, MD has an obsession with chasing Berkeley, when it comes to once seemingly fringe ideas. In this case, Berkeley proposed their ‘disposable bag’ fee in December, 2009. By January 1, 2012 Montgomery County shoppers had a new 5-cent bag fee, courtesy of MoCo MD State Delegate Al Carr the year prior. Mr. Carr will not be joining the MoCo Council this year however, after losing the Democratic primary for County Council, District Four.
Berkeley, by the way, has kicked around a proposal to hike the fee even higher.
Where does the money go?
Where does the money generated go? Well, according to MoCo’s Department of Environmental Protection, 1-cent goes to the retailer. Does 4-cents go to something called the “Water Quality Protection Charge” fund? The Department’s website is sparse. The examples of projects “funded by the Water Quality Protection Charge” consist of literally a single image of some people installing a drain pipe. No caption provided. How many projects are “funded”? Where, when, why, how? Wouldn’t it be great to have maximum transparency?
To be fair, MoCo does seem to employ someone who does a lot of research and stat compiling on how many plastic bags are being used and where at. Really detailed stuff compiled by someone in County government. Eight pages of work on plastic bag volumes. Who knew? Does this same person walk around and collect plastic bags or wrappers, strewn along the side of I-495?
And what about violating this bag fee? Well, per the law text itself, this is a “Class A Civil Violation”. Crazy stuff.
There has got to be a better, saner way to both reduce waste and keep money in the MoCo resident’s pocket. Let’s stop outsourcing policy to Berkeley and come up with something new and original here in MoCo.
Greg,
Your Roving Correspondent in Olney
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