While Baltimore lawmakers appear to be backing away from regulating disposable bags in the city, some legislators in Annapolis want to require merchants statewide to charge customers a nickel per bag for most throwaway sacks they now get for free to carry away their purchases.

The proposed "Chesapeake Bay Restoration Consumer Retail Choice Act of 2010" gets heard at 1 p.m. today (March 10) in the House Environmental Matters Committee (HB351) and Senate Finance Committee (SB462).

The identical bills, put in by Montgomery County legislators, bear similarities to the nickel-a-bag fee imposed recently in the District of Columbia, which is credited with cutting customer demand for disposable carryout bags by half or more in the few months since it took effect Jan. 1.  Like the DC fee, which is dedicated to the Anacostia River cleanup, revenues raised by the state bag fee would be earmarked for the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, which goes to help curb polluted runoff from farms and developed lands.  That fund, originally approved at $50 million a year, has never gotten that much, as budget troubles have trimmed it to $20 million - and it may get slashed again to $10 million this year, if budget analysts' recommendations are followed.

The fee would not apply to bags for certain goods, such as produce, candy, meats, flowers, carryout food from a restaurant and small hardware items.  Merchants could keep one cent of the fee for their trouble collecting it - and another two cents if they offer customers credits for bringing in their own reusable bags.   Any bags distributed by stores would have to be recyclable - 40 percent post-consumer if paper, or polyethylene code 2 or 4 if plastic.

Do you think a statewide fee as low as a nickel would get consumers to cut down on disposable bags that may wind up as litter?  Or do you think all that's needed is tighter enforcement of litter laws and more public education about the benefits of recycling?  Those seem to have been the two chief arguments around fees like this.   Does anyone know where a recycling campaign has reduced litter significantly?  Or a fee, for that matter? 

(AP photo)