Junior Madeline Twomey, a Hatchet columnist, calls on Washington D.C.’s council to allow Mayor Fenty to use the bag tax revenue for street sweeping funds.

As of January 1, the District requires stores that sell food or liquor to charge 5 cents per plastic bag used by customers. Four cents go to the Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Fund, and the remaining penny is given to the retailer.

Mayor Adrian Fenty, however, announced earlier this month that he’s hoping to allocate some of the money raised by the bag fee to a street-sweeping program in his budget for 2011, initiating conversation about how the money might be used.