Petersburg City Council member pushes for 5¢ plastic bag tax to fund city's beautification

Yahoo

24-05-2025

A Petersburg city councilor is proposing a 5-cent tax on plastic bags with the proceeds going to city beautification efforts.
Ward 7 Councilor Arnold Westbrook Jr., who has advocated for the tax for some time now, suggested at council's May 20 meeting that Petersburg could use the tax revenue to fund beautification efforts.
In past meetings, Westbrook has also noted that plastic bags make up a large portion of litter in Petersburg, and that the tax could help reduce local plastic bag pollution.
The 5-cent tax would be paid to the Virginia Department of Taxation, which would then disperse the funds to the city on a regular basis, he said during the city council meeting.
'If you don't know, a lot of localities up north, they already do it,' Westbrook told the meeting attendees. 'It's another way the city can make some money.'
Virginia law started permitting localities to impose a five-cent tax on disposable plastic bags provided by retailers such as grocery stores, convenience stores, and drugstores in 2020.
According to the law, revenue from the bag tax must be used for specific purposes: environmental cleanup, pollution and litter mitigation, educational programs to reduce environmental waste, or providing reusable bags to recipients of SNAP or WIC benefits.
These guidelines ensure that the tax directly supports sustainability efforts and helps low-income residents transition away from single-use plastic bags.
So far, 10 Virginia cities and counties have implemented the tax, using the revenue to support local initiatives from environmental cleanups to pollution mitigation, educational programs and more.
Fairfax County, for instance, has generated over $6 million in revenue from their plastic bag tax since they first implemented it in January 2022. These funds have supported a wide range of environmental and social programs in the county, including Operation Stream Shield, which pays unhoused community members to clean up local waterways and public spaces. The county also used the funds to invest in local community recycling and composting infrastructure, among other projects, and drastically lowered the total amount of plastic bags used in Fairfax since the tax was first implemented.
Westbrook is hoping for a similar outcome in Petersburg, with a focus on making the city look better.
'This can help beautify the city without any other strain on personal property taxes or other taxes on that sort,' he told meeting attendees.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg council member pushes for plastic bag tax to beautify city