D.C. was a bit of a pioneer in 2009 when then-Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) introduced a bill to impose a 5-cent consumer tax on all paper and plastic bags as a way to discourage the use of the throwaway bags that litter city streets and waterways and harm wildlife. There was some controversy and resistance. But more than a decade of experience with the tax in D.C. — and in states and localities that followed in the District’s footsteps — has largely quieted the skeptics and confirmed the usefulness of the tax. Surveys showed D.C. residents using fewer bags, and an organization that tries to clean up and protect the Anacostia River has said there has been a dramatic decrease in plastic bags in the river.
Good, then, that three of the largest jurisdictions in Northern Virginia have now finally taken similar action to try to protect the environment. Within a span of days last week, lawmakers in Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County voted to adopt a 5-cent tax on plastic bags. The new tax, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2022, will apply to disposable plastic shopping bags at convenience stores, grocery stores and drugstores; money raised from the fee will go to environmental cleanup efforts and to buy reusable bags for low-income residents. The legislation won unanimous approval in Arlington and Alexandria, while the vote in Fairfax was 9 to 1.
Local leaders in Northern Virginia had been talking for years about the need for some kind of bag tax, but the state’s Dillon Rule, which limits the legislative authority of localities, precluded them from taking action. That changed when the General Assembly, with Democrats in control, passed legislation allowing counties and cities to tax disposable bags. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed it into law, and Roanoke became the first local government in Virginia to adopt an ordinance taxing disposable plastic bags.
While it might have been advisable for the Northern Virginia lawmakers to include paper bags — which have environmental impacts — in their legislation, they rightly targeted plastic bags as an especially pernicious threat. Worldwide, shoppers use an estimated 1 trillion plastic bags each year, and because they are so lightweight, they are blown or washed into waterways and oceans, where, either intact or broken into microplastic particles, they injure or kill marine life.
The decision by jurisdictions in Northern Virginia to impose a bag tax should be a prod to Maryland lawmakers. Some counties — Montgomery and Howard — have adopted bag taxes, and the city of Baltimore has adopted a ban on plastic bags with a tax on paper bags that will go into effect on Oct. 1. But there has been no progress on legislation to either impose the tax statewide or give all localities the power to do so.
Mr. Wells, now director of the District Department of Energy & Environment, told us there has been no downside to the tax. Residents have been unfazed and businesses report no problems. “No one ever running for office said they would repeal the bag tax,” he said. “It is part of D.C.” And an example for its neighbors.
