Giving the Bag the Boot

Imagine 12 million barrels of oil...that’s what it takes to produce the 100 billion plastic bags Americans use once and then throw away every year!  Less than 5% of all those bags are recycled.  The rest are landfilled, incinerated or left blowing in the wind, littering our trees and open spaces and causing terrible hazards for sea life.  “Out of sight, out of mind?” That is wishful thinking, because plastic bags won’t biodegrade in the environment and will never break down in a the landfill, either.  The nightmare of the plastic bag will remain for your children, grandchildren and for many generations to come.  The cycle should stop and it needs to stop with us.

That paragraph sums up the premise behind the move by several Colorado communities to discourage or put an outright ban on one time use bags.  Muddying the issue is the assertion by ban opponents that, in terms of energy consumption, paper bags are just as bad.  The solution is to make reusable bags the only sensible option for consumers.  In 2009 a Senate bill which would have banned retail use of plastic bags statewide was defeated.  The effort is continuing on a local level.

Here’s what is happening:

Telluride has banned the distribution of plastic bags by retail stores.

Aspen and Carbondale have passed bans on plastic bags at local grocery stores and placed a .20 cent per bag fee on paper bags.

Basalt recently passed a measure which calls for a .20 cent fee on both paper and plastic bags.              

The City of Boulder is considering similar bans and fees.

A grassroots campaign, called Durango Bag it,  is currently underway to pressure that city to adopt a ban on plastic bags.

Program changes

The City of Montrose will end its curbside recycling collection program as of the first of the year, having found that the service, “free” to residents, was unaffordable.

Until further notice Durango residents will be unable to recycle plastics at that city’s drop off locations, after employees became ill while baling plastics at their facility. This is a great example of why we ask  GJ CRI customers to rinse and drain containers. The combination of fumes from different cleaners, solvents, etc. can create serious health hazards.