Fort Collins voters say no to single-use plastic bags

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CoPIRG calls on legislature to pass HB1162 and eliminate plastic bags, polystyrene food containers statewide

CoPIRG

DENVER – In the Fort Collins municipal election, voters approved local ordinance 26, a measure that will prohibit large grocers from providing disposable plastic bags and require payment of a disposable bag fee of $0.12 for disposable paper bags.

The vote comes as the state legislature debates HB21-1162, which would phase out single-use plastic bags and single-use polystyrene (also known as Styrofoam) food containers and cups. 

Statement by Danny Katz, CoPIRG executive director:

“Fort Collins is the latest Colorado community to clearly call for an end to our single-use plastic problem in Colorado. Every day, we go through an estimated 4.6 million single-use plastic bags. Once produced these items break into smaller pieces, often forming microplastics that take centuries to decompose if they ever do. We have so much plastics and microplastics in our communities and in the environment they are often the most common items found in Colorado community river cleanups, contribute to giant garbage patches in our oceans, and were recently found in rainwater collected in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Fort Collins voters are demonstrating yet again that Coloradans want to eliminate these unnecessary and wasteful products. 

Our state legislators should respond by acting swiftly to pass HB21-1162, the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act. The sheer scale of this problem requires state legislative action. With millions of new single-use plastic items pouring into our state every day, it is urgent we reduce the amount of single-use plastic products immediately. 

Nothing we use once for a few minutes to carry food or a beverage, should pollute our world for centuries.”