State and local governments say they have reduced consumers' reliance on single-use plastic bags through bans, fees and taxes. They have also collected millions of dollars from those fees. But where does that money go?
It depends on the local regulations regarding bags, of course, but recent stories out of Fairfax County, Va., and the state of Colorado provide at least a partial accounting.
Colorado's bag ban began Jan. 1, 2024, with a 10-cent fee on bags for customers who didn't bring their own. Colorado Public Radio reports that county and municipal governments have the responsibility of collecting the fee. Sixty percent of those fees go to the local government with retailers keeping the rest.
For the city of Denver, that added up to nearly $700,000 in bag fees for 2024 so far, money that is being used to fund other programs to reduce waste, such as helping restaurants transition away from single-use foodservice items, Natalie Lana, administrator for the city's bag fee program, told CPR.
Fairfax County, which has had a 5-cent bag tax since 2022, says it was able to invest $2 million into other sustainability programs through the fee.
Almost half of that money, $930,000, went to Operation Stream Shield, "a program that pays individuals experiencing homelessness to remove litter from waterways and public spaces," local news site FFXNow writes.