Denver City Moots Single-Use Plastic Bag Ban

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Denver-the capital city of Colorado is considering the possibility of imposing restrictions or banning use of single-use plastic bags. The proposal also covers straws and plastic utensils. The Policy Committee meeting held last week held initial discussions on the proposal. However, the bill is unlikely to move further as long as the State law is repealed. Incidentally, the Colorado law bans local governments from imposing ban on use or sale of plastic products.

The Council decided to consider ban on plastic bags following adoption of the ban by several cities including Seattle, Boston and Portland. Also, Charleston, S.C., had recently introduced ban on use of plastic bags, straws and styrofoam containers. In fact, California has a state-wide ban on single-use plastic bags.

Environmentalists have been pressing for the ban, mainly due to these plastic products filling up major portion of the landfills. The ban is said to have support of majority of Denver residents too. The Denver City Council President Jolon Clark has already extended support to the ban. However, any further action by the City is solely dependent on the fate of State Law during the next legislative session.

As per estimates provided by the Denver Solid Waste Management, nearly 7,000 tons of plastic films, bags and wraps were thrown away in Denver during the previous year, much of them ending up in landfills.