CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Albemarle County’s plastic bag tax isn’t popular with many shoppers, but it is adding significant funds to the county’s coffers. 

“To date, we’ve collected over $440,000 from that program since it was created in FY23,” said the city’s Director of Budget County Chief of Budget Katelyn Malcolm, during the Board of Supervisors’ recent budget work session.

The projected revenue in the county’s proposed budget is $140,000.

Shoppers are encouraged to use environmentally friendly shopping bags. Using the plastic bags available at grocery stores, convenience stores, and pharmacies now costs 5 cents per bag.

The county is using the revenue created to mitigate roadside litter along county rights-of-way, a litter education program, distribution of reusable shopping bags, and efforts to reduce litter in public waterways.

“And to give you a data point on this, from December of 2024 to December of 2025, this program and its funding funded cleanup of over 1,023 miles in the county, which included 3,932 bags of trash that were collected,” Malcom said during her presentation. “And then finally, not listed on this slide, but impacting the budget for public works, there’s an increase of $31,000 that’s related to operating costs for the New Circuit Court facility when it opens in FY27.”

Critics argue that adding costs when affordability is a major issue is ill-timed. They also point to the fact that, since it’s up to the individual retailers to charge the tax, it’s not being evenly enforced, especially at stores that utilize self-checkouts.