Dive Brief:
- Vail, CO has set its sights on introducing a plastic bag ban in the near future.
- Town officials are looking to reduce waste as part of an environmental strategy plan introduced in 2009, and plastic shopping bags are viewed as a substantial material contributing to the waste.
- The town council settled on a proposal that could potentially take effect on July 1. The council will go through the details when the draft ordinance is made available in February or March.
Dive Insight:
The town of Breckenridge has already implemented a bag ban. Under that law, consumers in need of a bag pay a 10 cent fee to purchase a paper bag at retail shops. The fees collected annually average $65,000, and a large portion of the money collected goes toward producing reusable bags.
Council members noted that that Aspen, CO charges 20 cents for bags, and the larger fee appears to have acted as a deterrent for customers.
Vail’s sustainability manager, Kristen Bertuglia, said cited a California study funding that there is a 63% single-use bag reduction when fees are set at 10 cents, and an 83% reduction when the fees are 20 cents.