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Committee advances bag fee and single‑use plastic ban with multiple clarifying amendments
Summary
The Transportation and Environment Committee advanced Bill 24‑24 to ban single‑use plastic carryout bags and raise the paper bag charge to $0.10, adopting several clarifying amendments and asking DEP for further implementation and outreach plans.
The Transportation and Environment Committee advanced Bill 24‑24, a proposal to prohibit single‑use plastic carryout bags in Montgomery County and to increase the paper bag fee to $0.10, adopting a set of clarifying amendments and directing further work before full council.
Committee members and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) staff discussed the bill’s main elements. As introduced, the measure would ban single‑use plastic carryout bags and impose a 10‑cent fee on paper carryout bags, with the fee split so that retailers receive 5 cents and 5 cents are allocated to the county’s Water Quality Protection Fund. The bill exempts customers who use federal food assistance benefits (SNAP and WIC); DEP staff confirmed that the exemption language in the draft bill covers those programs.
DEP witnesses (Vicki Wan, budget; Steve Martin, enforcement; Amy Stevens, Watershed Restoration) told the committee that the department has increased enforcement capacity since the Office of the Inspector General report found compliance and reporting weaknesses. DEP said it has a dedicated enforcement staff member and has registered additional retail accounts and collected previously unreported fees; staff provided figures for accounts reactivated and additional revenue collected during the department’s enforcement efforts.
Committee members adopted several technical and policy clarifications proposed in staff and stakeholder discussions: align exemptions for plastic and paper bags so identical exemptions apply to both; reduce the civil citation level from class A to class B (proposed amounts: $100 first offense, $150 repeat offense) to align with other county bans; clarify municipal applicability so that municipalities that do not adopt the county ban continue to remit the 10‑cent tax on plastic bags rather than exempting the county charge; remove the word “virtual” from the point‑of‑sale definition so the law covers only in‑person retail transactions; and strengthen the notice requirement language to minimize First Amendment risk.
The committee also asked DEP to produce a public outreach plan and indicated it expects a transition or grace‑period amendment for retailer inventories to be considered at full council. Members expressed concern with enforcement and fairness: Council Member Balcom requested updated counts of registered retailers, collection rates and DEP’s enforcement plan to ensure equitable application and to address compliance gaps documented by the Office of the Inspector General. DEP said it distributes 30,000–35,000 reusable bags annually through partners and will expand outreach.
The committee voted unanimously to advance the bill with the adopted amendments to full council for further consideration, including municipal applicability language and a possible grace period for existing retailer inventory.
