Plastic bag tax to generate $1.2 million
Fairfax County’s plastic bag tax has raised more than $500,000 for the county in the first quarter of 2022 and is on track to generate more than $1.2 million by the end of the year.
That’s the estimate in a memo from the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination to the Board of Supervisors.
The 5-cent tax on disposable plastic bags from grocery stores, convenience stores, and drugstores took effect Jan. 1.
The total generated is likely much more, as retailers can retain 2 cents per bag. Next year, that will be reduced to 1 cent.
Related story: Fairfax County taxes plastic bags
The tax was enacted to prevent plastic bags from piling up in waterways.
Under state law, the bag tax revenue must be spent on environmental programs and on reusable bags for people receiving federal food benefits.
County staff recommended the bag tax revenue be used for these purposes:
- Operation Stream Shield, a program that pays homeless people to clean up waterways – $370,000.
- Stream drain education and labeling projects – $70,000.
- The Community Labor Force, a program that uses inmates for county maintenance projects – $30,000.
- Bandalong and StormX maintenance to capture litter in waterways – $20,000.
- Reusable bags for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and WIC (Women Infants and Children nutrition program) recipients – $5,500.
- Reusable bags for food pantries – $5,500.
- Reusable bags for farmers markets – $5,000.
- Gloves and trash bags for volunteer stream cleanups – $5,000.
Now what to do w/ lazy dog owners who toss their baggies into storm drains (Sigh)
Tax and spend Democrats…..they never met a tax hike they didn’t like. Stop the spending, start saving, and fix the darn streets and upgrade where needed (e.g. Landmark Plaza area). Make foreigners assimilate and modernize all areas of Fairfax County. Hire more police, stop taking away their authority, and get the homeless out of the intersections. Then, get rid of Penny Gross and Jeffrey McKay and get someone with vision for this area.
I think plastic bags should be banned entirely. And if someone doesn’t want to be bothered bringing their reusable bags, they should be charged a high price for another reusable bag.
The problem is, Debbie Rosse (Holmes Run Valley Civic Association), is that reusable bags can harbor bacteria and viruses.
A study by the University of Arizona found that 51% of all reusable bags contained coliform bacteria, and 12% contained E. coli, indicating the presence of fecal matter and other pathogens.
The same study found that 97% of individuals admitted that they never washed their reusable bags.
Harmful bacteria can thrive in reusable bags unless users clean them properly after each use with soapy water that is at least 140 degrees.
A Canadian study found bacteria build-up on reusable bags was 300% higher than what is considered safe.
Storing reusable bags in a hot trunk — which many people do — causes the bacteria to grow 10 times faster.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that COVID-19 can live up to three days on polypropylene, which is the material that most reusable bags are made of.
A 2018 study in the Journal of Environmental Health concluded that reusable bags are very effective in transmitting infectious viruses from private homes to supermarket grocery carts and checkout stands.
If you wash your reusable bags, you’re using 88% fossil fuels to generate the electricity do so, and you’re pouring chemicals into our local bodies of water. I read a comment earlier today that made me chuckle: “HOAs are how God reveals who among us are Nazis.” So, pick your poison, but definitely get off the high horse.