An Anne Arundel County Council bill that would remove the 10-cent fee on paper bags will be up for a public hearing at Monday’s council meeting.
Introduced by Council Member Shannon Leadbetter, a Crofton Republican, the bill would remove the paper bag fee required under the county’s law limiting the use of plastic bags, which went into effect Jan. 1. It would also eliminate penalties for retailers who don’t collect the fee on paper or reusable carryout bags.
Businesses would not have to stop charging a fee for the bags, but they would no longer be required to do so, Council Member Amanda Fiedler, an Arnold Republican who’s cosponsoring the bill, said during a Nov. 12 council work session.
While Ethan Hunt, the county’s director of government affairs, said he understood the goal of the legislation, removing the fee could give residents an incentive to use more paper bags.
“If the line item isn’t on the receipt, they’ll just start using paper bags, which, on a bag-to-bag basis, have more of an environmental impact than even plastic bags, and I think that cost will still be passed on to the consumer,” he said.
Fiedler, who voted to support the county’s plastic bag ban last year, said the fee was meant to change consumer behavior and that has taken place. Now, the fee is affecting older area residents who are unable to go to stores and utilize grocery delivery services that use paper bags, increasing their bills, she said.
“They don’t have an option to bring their own because it’s delivery,” she said. “They can’t tell the grocery store [to] bring it in a box, so they’re kind of stuck and they’re on a limited income.”
Council Member Nathan Volke, a Pasadena Republican who is also cosponsoring the bill, has heard similar complaints about the 10-cent fee.
Volke, who voted for the plastic bag ban, pointed out the significant increase in the number of shoppers who bring their own bags and the time frame that retailers have had to adjust to paper bag fees.
“So with that, I think that it does make sense that at this point we say we have accomplished the behavior modification that we want to have; now, let’s take away that fee and let’s see if we continue to have that,” he said. “I think we will, because people have adjusted.”
Council Member Lisa Rodvien, an Annapolis Democrat who sponsored the ban on plastic bags, said she would oppose the bill.
“We have had behavior change, but I don’t know why we would expect not to have additional behavior change if we change the law,” she said during the work session. “We’ll then be incentivizing folks to just take free paper bags and be less diligent about remembering to bring their reusable bags.”
Testimony on the legislation, known as Bill 92-24, can be submitted online at aacounty.org through 11 a.m. Monday. Residents can also sign up to speak about the bill at the meeting by 3 p.m. Monday.
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