Committee advances 10¢ paper-bag fee and plastic-bag prohibition with exemptions and enforcement changes

Montgomery County’s council committee voted unanimously to advance a revised carryout-bag policy that raises the paper-bag fee to 10¢ and prohibits single-use plastic carryout bags with enumerated exemptions, while lowering the initial civil citation to class B and clarifying municipal applicability and in-person point-of-sale scope.

Council President Stewart, the bill sponsor, said the rewrite was shaped by months of work with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), retailers and environmental advocates and was informed by a recent Inspector General review that found gaps in collection and reporting. "We wanted to make sure that as we make changes... we actually put in place something that was going to be doable," Stewart said.

Key provisions and staff amendments: The bill would increase the paper-bag fee from 5¢ to 10¢ with a 5¢ allocation to retailers and 5¢ to the Water Quality Protection Fund, and would prohibit single-use plastic carryout bags while listing exemptions for prescription drugs, newspaper bags, perishable bulk items, certain charity distributions and farmers-market contexts. The committee adopted staff-proposed friendly amendments to align exemptions for paper and plastic bags, to make point-of-sale enforcement apply to in-person transactions (removing a proposed "virtual" definition), and to require municipalities that have not enacted local bans to collect the 10¢ tax on plastic bags so county revenues are preserved.

Enforcement and compliance: DEP enforcement staff described actions taken since June 2023 to improve compliance: outreach to nearly 6,000 retailers, securing registration and resumed payments from previously delinquent accounts (134 accounts resumed payments, generating approximately $205,804), adding 141 new registrants (about $72,000 in additional fees reported or pending), and issuing two civil citations under the previous framework. DEP said it will ramp up multilingual outreach and communications ahead of any effective date.

Transition and effective date questions: Committee members asked about a grace period to allow retailers to use existing plastic-bag inventory and about readiness to meet a suggested July 1, 2025 effective date. DEP committed to drafting language on a transition/grace period for full council consideration and to expanded outreach; the committee asked staff to provide more complete registration and compliance numbers before the full-council vote.

Outcome and next steps: The committee approved the amended bill unanimously and will forward it to the full council with staff instructions to draft transition language and to continue outreach and enforcement planning.