❌Banning Single-Use Plastic Bags In Montgomery County, MD 🛍️
Beyond Plastics Montgomery County Maryland launched on February 27, 2024 and managed to achieve a major advocacy victory in time to help celebrate its one-year anniversary as a local group! 🥳
On February 11, 2025, Montgomery County Council unanimously voted to pass the Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) bill, which bans carryout single-use plastic bags, with some exemptions, and imposes a 10-cent fee on paper bags. Read the official news release.
The county and the retailer will split the fee, with the county allocating its portion to the Water Quality Protection Charge (WQPC) fund. While Montgomery County had previously placed a 5-cent fee on all plastic and paper bags, it was found that these fees were not being collected from retailers. The 5-cent fee will be repealed once the new law goes into effect.
Montgomery County Council Vice President Kate Stewart introduced the bill on October 15, 2024 as a solution to reduce plastic waste in the county just north of Washington, DC and home to more than 1 million residents.
The ban will take effect on January 1, 2026, at which time Montgomery County residents will join the 70 percent of Maryland residents who live in areas with plastic bag bans.
Beyond Plastics MoCo Maryland worked alongside other environmental groups in advocating for the law, utilizing the organizing skills and tools covered in the Beyond Plastics Grassroots Training, including drafting and submitting written testimony to the county council, testifying before the Council, engaging media, countering arguments against the ban in the local press through letters to the editor, and issuing action alerts to local residents urging them to contact council members to support the bill.
“Plastic bags are harmful to the environment. They’re unnecessary. People adapt to their elimination, and there’s no credible downside in banning them related to health. Some estimates indicate that each resident in the U.S. uses [one plastic] bag per day on average. So for the 1 million residents of Montgomery County, that’s contributing a significant amount of waste.”
Importantly, Beyond Plastics MoCo volunteers also hosted in person events in the community leading up to the vote to educate residents about the dangers of plastic to human health and environment and the policy solution. In September 2024, co-founders Didi Bild and Adrienne Dern led an educational session at Wheaton public library at which they showcased readily accessible alternatives to single-use plastics like shopping bags, water bottles, food wrap, laundry detergent, and personal care items. On November 12, 2024 the team joined in to promote a screening of Plastic People in Washington, DC led by national partner organizations and followed by a panel discussion. In January, Didi and Adrienne offered a plastics 101 presentation to residents of Riderwood Senior Living facility.
We are so impressed with this young group’s organizing chops! Congratulations, MoCo MD. We can’t wait to see what you folks tackle next.
RESOURCES
Interested in getting a single-use plastic bag ban introduced in your community? Use our Beyond Plastics Model Bill and campaign toolkit, find a sponsor in your local government and work with them to make the bill fit your community’s needs.