Fredericksburg councilor proposes 5-cent plastic bag tax

Fredericksburg's At-Large City Councilmember Kerry Devine hopes to bag support for an effort to reduce plastic waste in the city.

Devine proposes to create a plastic bag tax in order to encourage residents to use reusable shopping bags. 

Fredericksburg has the authority to impose such a tax due to legislation that was adopted by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020. According to the language, the legislation allows any city or county by ordinance to impose a disposable plastic bag tax of five cents for each disposable plastic bag provided to a consumer by grocery shops, convenience stores, or drug stores.

This would not, according to Devine, apply to bags used to carry home produce or meats and poultry, or for plastic trash and pet waste bags.

During her presentation, Devine said that she had wanted to bring up the tax last year but refrained due to the pandemic since restaurants were trying to stay afloat and felt it wasn't the right time to bring the matter up. Devine also hoped that if this tax was implemented that it would encourage residents to start relying on reusable bags so that no tax would be collected.

Devine found support for the idea from some on the Council when Vice Mayor Charlie Frye asked Devine how to incentivize the use of non-plastic reusable bags in the local stores. Devine replied, stating it would require residents to develop new habits in using such bags.

Ward 3 Councilor Timothy Duffy also made his support known as he invoked his concerns of the negative environmental impact of plastics:

"Plastic is a big problem. Only 10% of plastic produced has been recycled, we were sold a bill of goods that plastic can be recycled but that isn't happening."

Plastic bag taxes have been a somewhat popular method by some localities to encourage the use of non-disposable bags in order to preserve the environment. California was the first to pass a statewide plastic bag ban known as Proposition 67 which was signed by then Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014 and imposed a 10-cent tax on single-use plastic bags. Ward 2 Councilor Bill Withers mentioned during the presentation that Roanoke had already passed such a tax in its area.

Fredericksburg is currently looking into the feasibility of the tax but wouldn't be able to implement it until Oct. 1 if leaders decided to move forward with it.

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