ROANOKE, Va. – It’s been a week since the city of Roanoke implemented a plastic bag tax, but the change is causing a lot of confusion in the city and beyond.
Roanoke City’s new plastic bag tax only affects convenience stores, drug stores and grocery stores inside city limits. Roanoke’s sustainability and outreach coordinator, Nell Boyle says the new tax has caused confusion among shoppers whether stores are located in Roanoke County or the city.
“They’re trying to be compliant and do the right thing. They misunderstood who this affects. I don’t think it’s malicious about what they’re trying to do. They just don’t understand,” said Boyle.
“So we have reached out to the county and we are working with the county very nicely. And we reach out to the stores individually and just say, ‘You are welcome to charge a fee, but you can’t charge a tax,’” she said.
Multiple stores in Roanoke County like T.J. Maxx were mistakenly charging the tax to customers earlier this week. 10 News alerted corporate to the mistake.
10 News checked with T.J. Maxx on Friday and they were no longer charging customers for plastic bags.
But some stores are choosing to charge a bag fee in addition to the city’s plastic bag tax.
At Kroger locations within city limits, they’re charging five cents per plastic bag for the city’s tax, while also charging a five-cent fee for every paper bag.
A Kroger spokesperson released a statement saying in part:
“The five cents per paper bag is going to help cover the costs of additional paper bags needed as people shift away from plastic. it’s also in an effort to support the city’s desire to transition to reusable bags.”
Boyle believes these minor details of the tax will be ironed out with the help of state agencies, as Roanoke is the first city in the Commonwealth to put a tax on plastic bags.
“This gets actually regulated from the state and not from the city. It’s state sales tax that’s where they pay it. So we have reached out to the Virginia Department of Taxation and let them know there is some confusion there and asked for some guidance,” she said.
Boyle wants to emphasize the plastic bag tax is a way to encourage shoppers to move towards using reusable plastic bags and avoid any tax or fee altogether.