Plastic bag tax funded projects to date
Heading into the grocery store, without remembering to bring your reusable bags, you may be forced to pay the 5 cent per bag tax for that forgetfulness. As you rack up your bag use tally, you may be wondering: “Is this payment making a difference just how much money is being collected from everyone? Where is this tax revenue going?”
Surprisingly the five cents per bag you and others pay to the fund in a store visit has added up to over $6 million dollars in Fairfax County’s coffers so far. That money is all going to protect our local environment in a variety of ways.
While the amount of funds collected is impressive, there also is evidence that a significant number of people have switched to using reusable bags on most shopping trips. That is making a notable difference in plastic bags collected as litter in area parks and along roadways. Board of Supervisors chairman Jeff McKay said, “We are seeing the results of this program in the significant reduction of plastic waste. The bag fee has never been about generating revenue but about changing behavior that helps our planet and helps our community reduce litter.” Plastic bags used in 2023 decreased by 1.6 million from 2022; and decreased again in the first eight months of 2024 by two million from 2023’s use.
Why use reusable bags instead of switching to paper bags? Fairfax County’s Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination (OEEC) shares that when compared to the production of paper bags, “Making the switch to a reusable bag saves about 53MW of energy per year, as well as 7 liters of water.” An out-right ban of plastic bags would require enabling law by the Virginia legislature.
Fairfax County implemented its Plastic Bag Tax Ordinance just three years ago, on Jan. 1, 2022. It taxes plastic bags provided at grocery, convenience and drug stores. In accordance with the Virginia law that established the ability for localities to enact the ordinance, the funds are returned, by the collector, the State Department of Taxation, to the locality where collected. The uses for which the funds may be applied, also are dictated by the establishing law. They must be used in 1) education on environmental waste reduction, 2) environmental cleanup, 3) pollution and litter mitigation, or 4) providing reusable bags to recipients of SNAP or WIC supplemental benefits programs. The county’s Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination selects appropriate projects, collaborating with a multi-agency selection committee, soliciting and reviewing applications for use of the revenues.
Among the initiatives paid for by the bag tax is a give-away of reusable shopping bags and compostable produce bags to visitors of the county-hosted farmers markets, aiming to further reduce reliance on disposable bags.
The largest allocation of the funds is going toward the on-going environmental project, Operation Stream Shield; with a $390,000 allocation, 38 percent of total. That partnership project, begun in 2019 between county departments and several community shelters, provides those experiencing homelessness with part-time, temporary jobs removing litter and invasive plants, typically working in litter hot spots along streams and roadways. Just announced, a $360,000 allocation funds the continuing program to remove illegal signs within VDOT rights-of-way for a clean, litter-free environment along county roadways. Also receiving six digit allocations are a latex paint pilot program which would divert unused latex paint from county landfills to Honduras for reuse; a new program for training on use of Zero Waste programs in opportunity neighborhoods; and to fund continuing collection and education about food composting at county-run farmers markets. Several other programs with allocations between $77,000 and $5,000 also are funded from the FY 2023 Carryover and FY 2024 Third Quarter $2 million revenue allocation.The smallest programs at about $2,000 each include an anti-littering campaign pilot program for signage at Laurel Hill Park in Lorton - a littering hot spot; and trash collection and bagging devices for use at two detention ponds and one open concrete channel, to identify strategies for litter management in stormwater systems.
“We are seeing the results of this program in the significant reduction of plastic waste. The bag fee has never been about generating revenue but about changing behavior that helps our planet and helps our community reduce litter.” - Jeff McKay, Chairman, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors