A Brand New Bag

Take a look at that free grocery bag waiting at the end of the conveyor of your favorite grocery store. Smile at it, and now wave good bye to it.

Montgomery County businesses must charge a nickel for each paper or plastic carryout bag, under the county's new carryout bag tax.

The law took effect on Sunday.

County Executive's office has been BYOB evangelizing ever since the council adopted the tax in May, following in the footsteps of Washington, D.C. County Executive Isiah Leggett gave away reusable bags Nov. 17 at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. Other staffers from the County Executive's office mobilized the night before Black Friday to handout reusables to shoppers waiting outside big-box stores in Gaithersburg and Rockville.

The county estimates the 5-cent bag tax will bring in more than a million dollars in revenue in its first year. The bag tax revenue would be spent on environmental clean up efforts, county officials have said.