Heading out for a grocery run this weekend? If you forget your reusable bags, it’ll cost you double. As of Jan. 1st, Montgomery County has raised its paper bag fee from five cents to 10 cents per bag. Meanwhile, single-use plastics remain largely banned. Takeout and delivery orders are exempt from these fees, and so are bags used for dry cleaning, prescription medications, fresh produce, meat, seafood or bulk items. Shoppers paying with a food assistance program will not be charged. Half of these bag fees go to the stores themselves, and the other half to Montgomery County’s water quality and litter control programs. So… is there evidence that these bag tax fees are actually doing any good? The answer depends on how you measure success. Since the five-cent fees launched here in 2012, studies show more shoppers are bringing their own bags to the store. Whether that behavior has translated into a measurable environmental impact is not so clear.
Abby Geiselman
I noticed that on my DoorDash orders, McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A charged a bag fee, but in my Uber Eats orders, I didn’t see a bag fee from McDonald’s. Why is McDonald’s charging a bag fee on DoorDash but not on Uber Eats?
Store Reporter
Here’s what Montgomery County has to say about this issue:
“The Bring Your Own Bag Law exempts certain paper carryout bags used at restaurants from being taxed. Restaurants must not collect the tax from customers for paper bags that (1) are given to a customer to take prepared or leftover food or drink from a restaurant, (2) contain prepared food provided at the drive-through window of a restaurant, (3) are provided at a mobile food truck that contains prepared food, and (4) are provided for food delivery that is collected by a third party delivery service to carry the purchased item.”
So it sounds like the delivery companies are not allowed to charge this fee.