ROANOKE, Va. – Shoppers in the City of Roanoke will soon be faced with a tax on plastic bags.
At the beginning of the new year, Roanoke will become the first city in the Commonwealth to put a tax on plastic bags.
“There’s going to be a five-cent tax on every checkout bag. So not like the ice cream or produce bags, just those bags that you check out. That will be assigned as you check out just like a line item, like everything else. So if you have five bags, it will be twenty-five cents,” explained Roanoke’s sustainability and outreach coordinator, Nell Boyle.
The tax will affect grocery stores, drug stores and convenience stores. Boyle says the city has been working to create this kind of tax for the last decade.
“We are hoping it’s the tax you never pay. If you bring your reusable bags you never have to pay the five cents,” said Boyle.
The hope is for people to stop using plastic bags and opt for reusable or paper bags.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said one Roanoke shopper, Linda Jernigan. “We use too much plastic. And honestly, I’ll use plastic until they tell me not to,” she said.
One concern is how this tax could disproportionately affect people with lower incomes, like shoppers who use SNAP or WIC.
“We’re making a real effort to get bags into the hands of low-income families,” said Boyle. “We’re going to use all of our avenues through different organizations that reach out to low-income families. Also, they will be available at our libraries so you can always stop by the library and pick one up.”
Boyle says it’ll be up to stores to decide how they’ll address the tax when customers use self-checkout or curbside pick up.