Dive summary:

• Over the last week, a wave of criticism hit the bag ban in Montgomery County, Maryland with many saying that an extra 5 cents for a bag doesn't affect consumers decisions.
• Shortly after that, a second wave of criticism looked at statistics of plastic bag use with new information showing that the number of bags used in Montgomery County might be as high as 300 million a year instead of the original estimate, 82.9 million.
• While the bag ban may have helped deter use by 60-70%, there are no indisputable tracking statistics to end the debate.

From the article:

While there is strong anecdotal evidence that waterways and stream banks are cleaner, the county acknowledged it had no firm estimate of pre-tax bag usage. Officials established 82.9 million as a baseline, but acknowledged that it had extrapolated the figure from the District, which had adapted its estimate from the city of Seattle when it passed its bag fee.

Now comes one possible answer: 300 million. ...