What's gotten me all spun up this month, and not in a good way, is the new tax on plastic grocery bags in Montgomery County. Now, I have to admit, at least part of my annoyance is that although I don't live, work, or indeed, spend very much time at all in Montgomery County. But thanks to a trick of the county lines, about 95% of the grocery shopping (if not more) I do, is in Montgomery County, a fact that I didn't even really think about until January 1, 2012, when the new 5 cent per bag tax went into place.

Now, I know that the whole point of the tax is a) to reduce the number of plastic bags used, and b) to help pay for litter cleanup. And while I agree with both of those things in principle, in actual practice, I re-used every single plastic bag that came into my house, either for scooping cat litter, picking up after the dogs, and often for a myriad of other tasks. I am, in fact, a bit of a plastic bag hoarder, and have been known to scoop up just about any plastic bag that comes my way. But at a surcharge of 5 cents per bag, it's going to start to be cheaper for me to buy packaged bags, thus contributing to the problem of only using plastic bags a single time, not to mention the additional needless packaging.

But in addition to that, there's now the problem of what to do about bags. Three years ago, every single grocery store, Target, what have you, had the 99 cent reusable bags for sale at every single register. Since Janary 1st, I've been looking, and not a single store I've visited has had any out. One time, and one time only, did my nearby Safeway have $2.99 insulated bags for sale at the register. (I bought one--it's actually very handy.) So if you haven't been stocking up on reusable bags in years past, you are out of luck.

Not only that, but I would swear that the plastic grocery bags now are cheaper and flimsier than ever. Add that to the fact that the baggers are bagging them in such a way to use as few bags as possible (which makes logical sense), but by the time I get my groceries home, have the bags have ripped, making them unusable for any other purpose. So we're yet again contributing, at least in my household, to the problem that I'm actually being more wasteful than I was a month ago, at least in regards to plastic bags.

So, my solution? Let's cancel the tax, and send everyone's unused bags to me. I promise, I'll put them to good use.

--Claire Smith

Posted by Claire Smith on February 09, 2012 at 09:44 am EST

Tags: sustainability, recycle, plastic
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