Plastic Bag Ban

Originally Published: April 5, 2023

On March 7th, the County Commissioners met with Commanding Officer Derrick Kingsley of NAS/PAX. Unfortunately, the video recording of this meeting is unavailable because of a technical issue. Although no official memo was released summarizing this meeting, documents presented during the meeting are available online. Several topics were covered during this meeting, including a proposed ban of plastic bags in the county.

Lance McDaniel, Environmental Director for NAS/PAX shared information with the Commissioners justifying the ask, including that

-10 million tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean annually

- 50% of all plastic produced is for single-use purposes

-less than 9% of all plastic gets recycled

-and 1 million marine animals are killed by plastic pollution every year

Plastic bags get into the rivers and bay, and wind up on the base where they can do hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to equipment.

McDaniel cited other locations in the state where plastic bag bans exist included Montgomery and Howard Counties, and the cities of Takoma Park and Chestertown. If a ban were enacted, it would prevent retail establishments from providing disposable plastic bags to customers at checkout, and could include a provision stating plastic bags would cost consumers 5 cents each. Money from this could be used to clean up litter, pay for reusable bags, or other environmental uses determined by the Commissioners.

Commissioner President Randy Guy reportedly said it was up to local retailers to take the steps needed to stop using plastic bags.

Do you support a plastic bag ban in St. Mary’s County?