It may soon save you money to bring your own plastic bags with you when you go grocery shopping in Prince George’s County. The Baltimore Sun reports the county is thinking of enacting a new tax on all disposable plastic bags.
Environmentalists and other groups support the proposed five-cent fee, arguing that it’ll help clean the Anacostia River. They cite a similar tax – which is already in place – in Washington as the proof.
“The total volume of trash in the river has gone down dramatically,” Mike Bolinder, a member of Waterkeeper Alliance – a group that works to protect bodies of water – told the Baltimore Sun.
A study last year, conducted by the nonprofit group the Alice Ferguson Foundation, found that 75 percent of D.C. residents say they use fewer plastic bags, since the tax was enacted.
Prince George’s County would be the second county in Maryland to implement the fee. Montgomery County enacted a plastic bag fee at the start of 2012.
