Page County Board of Supervisors discuss potential plastic bag tax

PAGE COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) - In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill allowing counties in the Commonwealth to implement a five-cent plastic bag tax.

Page County could soon be the first in the Valley to establish the tax.

Monday night, the Page County Board of Supervisors made the initial steps to potentially add a plastic bag tax in the county.

“Walmart or Food Lion or where ever you get a plastic bag there will be a five cents per bag tax on each one,” Amity Moler, Page County administrator said. “Four cents comes back to the locality, one penny goes to the retailer and it has to be used toward environmental cleanup which we could put toward landfill.”

According to Virginia Tax, ten localities in Virginia currently have the plastic bag tax including Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

”When it comes down to the point it’s a tax you don’t have to pay because you bring in your own recyclable bags or you can ask for paper and I think the more people ask for something else maybe we’ll move in that direction so at least it’s somewhat positive,” Allen Louderback, Page County Board of Supervisors member said.

A public hearing on the plastic bag tax in Page County will take place on June 5 at the Board of Supervisors meeting.

If they approved the tax at the meeting it will be implemented on Sept 1.