Why I think the Montgomery County Bag Tax Should be Repealed

Of all the topics on my blogs, the MC bag tax has a high emotional value that I wasn’t really expecting. Let me pull together the information from the threads into one place.

First, I work in DC where the bag tax has been in place since January. I am not theorizing about how it really works, I know first hand. It doesn't really work that great.

Second, I agree with the intent of the law – reduce trash, save the environment. What I don’t agree with is what happens in the real world. Some vendors supply the bag but don’t charge for it, so no cost recoup here. Others embed the cost so the consumer is charged even when they don’t take a bag(s). Why get ripped off?

Third, taking the cost for all litter and then applying it only to plastic bags is tricky since litter also contains reusable bags as well as the other stuff. Reusable bags get tossed in the gutter and in trash dumps just like plastic bags so unless the reporter did a manual count…

Fourth, no one article pulls together all the final costs of each type of bag from a minute it’s made until it is no longer on this earth. Looking at several articles, plastic bags are cheaper to make but reusable bags take up more physical trash space and take longer to decompose. In the end, it looked like plastic bags had less environmental impact and were “cheaper” in the long run.

Fifth, my personal beef is the cost is disproportionate to the poor because they tend to have larger families and buy more groceries. Because Montgomery County is very wealthy, lawmakers are insensitive to the fact that not everyone is a millionaire and even 5 cents can add up.

My other beef is my personal observation that the well-to-do around here are the ones throwing their bags on the street thinking some maid will pick it up, not the working poor. Why should those who are disadvantaged have to pay for them?

Finally, the majority of folks will not wash the reusable bags regularly and the bacteria will build up and contaminate food which, when eaten, will make the person trying to do a good thing sick.

I hope this helps us.