Montgomery County’s Plastic Bag Ban Survey & Results
Montgomery County’s “Bring Your Own Bag” law (Bill 24-24), led by Councilmember Stewart, went into effect on January 1, 2026. The law prohibits retail establishments from providing single-use plastic carryout bags and revises the County's 2011 bag law to increase the fee to 10 cents for alternative paper carryout bags at the point of sale. Trash Free Maryland strongly supported the legislation as a step toward updating the county’s plastic carryout bag policy (one of the first!) to align with fees and policies in place in surrounding jurisdictions and to ban more plastic carryout bags. We supported this legislation because we know that a plastic bag ban and higher fee for paper bags can incentivize customers to “bring their own bag” and choose a reusable option to avoid the bag fee altogether. But is the law working as intended to change shopper behavior in Montgomery County? Yes!
TL/DR: Yes! This week Trash Free Maryland hosted a learning session for our advocacy coalition to find out! Martha Ainsworth presented the results of a recent Sierra Club volunteer observational survey of grocery shopper bag choices before and after the law went into effect. Before the law, approximately half of shoppers were using a plastic bag or mix of plastic and paper, and half were using no bag or a reusable bag. After the law went into effect, only 1.4 percent were using plastic or a mix of plastic and paper bags, and nearly 72 percent of shoppers were using no bag or a reusable bag. This is a telling early result that suggests the combination of plastic bag ban and increased fee for paper bags is having the desired behavior change effect. Read more about bag policies in place around Maryland on our plastic bag page.
The new law defines a “reusable bag” as one that is constructed with stitched handles and made of a durable non-film plastic material. This definition incorporates lessons learned from bag laws in other states that have inadvertently led to increased use of thicker film plastic bags rather than plastic bag replacement with durable bags designed to be washed and used for many cycles.
Earlier this year, we heard reports of non-compliant bags (bags constructed of plastic and without stitched handles) being distributed, but stories have tapered off. Next, we want to compare litter data from before and after the law. Anecdotally, we are seeing fewer plastic bags blowing in the breeze and washing down our creeks. Does the data back this observation up? We’d love to see plastic bags disappear from the environment completely. Keep sharing your observations with us, too.
