Prince George’s County’s Better Bag Bill Works!
There’s been a sweeping change in shopper behavior in Prince George’s County since the beginning of the year, as shoppers have switched from single-use plastic carryout bags to reusable bags or no bag!
According to Sierra Club’s countywide survey of shoppers’ bag use in 2019, 88% of shoppers at major grocery chains were using single-use plastic carryout bags; only 12% were using reusable bags or not taking a bag at all. The Prince George’s County Council passed the Better Bag Bill (CB-32-2023) in June 2023 to reduce litter and plastic pollution from carryout bags, reduce single-use waste, and incentivize shoppers to use reusable carryout bags or not to take a bag at all. It prohibited retailers from providing plastic carryout bags that are not reusable, defined reusable, and required that retailers charge at least 10 cents for paper and reusable bags. The bill went into effect in January 2024.
Over four weekends in May 2024, Sierra Club volunteers re-surveyed stores in the same chains as were surveyed in 2019. The results are in!
- At seven major grocery chains, the share of shoppers using reusable bags or not taking a bag has risen from 12% to 69%! This includes 43% of shoppers who opted not to use a carryout bag at all and 26% who used a reusable bag (Figure 1). Thirty percent of shoppers were using paper bags.
Figure 1: Distribution of Prince George’s grocery shoppers at seven major chains according to their carryout bag use, before and after the Better Bag Bill (%)
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Fall 2019 (48 stores, 7,694 shoppers) |
May 2024 (42 stores, 6,138 shoppers) |
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Source: Prince George’s Sierra Club Shopper Surveys, 2019 and 2024. Results are for all stores in the following grocery chains: Food Lion, Giant, Harris Teeter, Safeway, Shoppers, Wegmans, Weis Markets.
- These dramatic shifts in shoppers’ bag use were observed in every County Council District.
- The response of shoppers at three international chains was even greater, while shoppers at Aldi and Lidl continued their high use of reusable bags or no bag.
- Adding a minimum charge for paper and reusable bags to the City of Laurel’s existing plastic carryout bag ban incentivized shoppers to shift from single-use paper bags to reusables or no bag. The share of shoppers using reusable bags or no bag more than doubled, from 31% to 66%, with this financial incentive.