HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Read Before Packet - 1/12/2021 - Memorandum From Molly Saylor Re: January 12, 2021 Work Session Updated Materials - Plastic Pollution - Item 1Environmental Services
222 Laporte Ave.
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.221.6600
fcgov.com/environmental services
MEMORANDUM
Date: January 11, 2021
To: Mayor Troxell and City Councilmembers
Thru: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
Jacqueline Kozak Thiel, Chief Sustainability Officer
Lucinda Smith, Environmental Services Director
From: Molly Saylor, Senior Specialist, Environmental Sustainability
Re: January 12, 2021 Work Session Updated Materials
This memo is to provide Council with updated materials for the January 12 plastic pollution work session
item, including:
1. Updated attachment: Updated Summary of Survey Responses – Share Your Thoughts on
Plastics Policy
This attachment provides Council an update of survey responses and summary statistics
as of January 11th at 8am.
New comments are included after comments previously included, creating a
comprehensive reference of all comments to date.
2. Updated presentation
Minor changes to headers, wording, and formatting.
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Share Your Thoughts on Plastics Policy
Summary of Responses
• 790 Responses
• Included responses from December 17, 2020 – January 10, 2021
• Survey available in both Spanish and English
Policy Questions:
478 117 27 166LEVEL OF SUPPORT
Plastic Bag Ban and Paper Bag Fee at Large
Grocers in Fort Collins, Beginning in May
2022
Strongly Support Somewhat Support Somewhat Do Not Support Do Not Support
553 70 27 135LEVEL OF SUPPORT
A Ban on Plastic Bags
Strongly Support Somewhat Support Somewhat Do Not Support Do Not Support
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345
305
408
279
140
215
151
233
86
65
35
55
202
191
177
216
AN EXEMPTION TO THE PAPER BAG FEE FOR LOW-
INCOME CUSTOMERS
PORTION OF PAPER BAG FEE BEING RETAINED BY
GROCERS
PORTION OF PAPER BAG FEE BEING RETAINED BY
THE CITY
A FEE ON PAPER BAGS
PAPER BAGS: How Strongly Do You Support
The Following?
Strongly Support Somewhat Support Somewhat Do Not Support Do Not Support
436
515
443
368
492
129
113
146
179
93
47
22
32
44
21
162
127
158
184
173
ANNUAL REPORTING ON DISPROPORTIONATE
IMPACTS
ANNUAL REPORTING ON PERFORMANCE
MEASURES
AUDIT IMPACTED BUSINESSES
CIVIL PENALTIES FOR THOSE WHO DON'T COMPLY
IMPLEMENTING POLICY IN MAY 2022
Support for Other Policy Elements
Strongly Support Somewhat Support Somewhat Do Not Support Do Not Support
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Demographic Questions
58%30%
10%
1%
0%
1%
0%
0%
0%
Gender
Woman
Man
Decline to Specify
Non-Binary
Transgender Non-Binary
Prefer to Self-Identify
Two Spirit
Transgender Woman
Transgender Man
77%
16%
4%
2%
1%0%0%Race
White
Decline to Specify
Two or more races
Asian
Black / African American
American Indian / Alaska Native
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander
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69%
25%
4%2%
Ethnicity
Non-Hispanic / Latinx
Decline to specify
Hispanic / Latinx
Prefer to Self-identify
70%
22%
3%
2%2%
1%
0%Sexual Orientation
Heterosexual
Decline to specify
Bisexual
Pansexual
Lesbian or Gay
Prefer to Self-identify
Asexual
20%
16%
16%15%
15%
9%
8%
1%Age Range
60-69 yrs
30-39 yrs
50-59 yrs
40-49 yrs
70 yrs or older
20-29 yrs
Decline to specify
15-19 yrs
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23%
17%
14%
13%
10%
8%
5%
4%3%
2%1%Household Income Range
Decline to specify
$100K - $149,999
$50K - $74,999
$75K - $99,999
$35K - $49,999
$150K - $199,999
$200K +
$25K - 34,999
$15K - 24,999
Less than $10K
$10K - $14,999
80%
12%
6%
1%1%
Educational Attainment
Bachelor's degree or higher Some college or associate's degree
Decline to specify Less than high school graduate
High school graduate (or equivalency)
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25%
17%
15%
14%
12%
9%
8%
Council District
Decline to Specify
1
6
2
4
3
5
36%
22%
18%
11%
8%5%
Length of Residence
More than 20 yrs
1-5 yrs
6-10 yrs
11-15 yrs
16-20 yrs
Decline to Specify
78%
20%
2%
Do Your Own or Rent Your Residence
Own
Rent
Other
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Open Ended Question: What other thoughts do you have on the proposed policy?
Responses received after 12.29.2020 (responses received before 12.29 previously included in memos are
below.
MANY other necessary and important public policies regarding the environment where City could have
reasoned and useful work
My big concern is with the implementation timeline given COVID 19
This is one of the dummest ideas ever. I can not believe you are spending time on this with other more
important things going on. You need to focus on small businesses, getting them up and running again.
This thing roles around every couple of years and it is still stupid.
Wrong priority, wrong time. Small and large businesses are struggling to survive. Try education and
voluntary compliance first. There maybe a hygienic issue with reusable bags during COVID.
Health, housing, economy, jobs, food, school should be our priorities now!
I am thrilled to see this being addressed! I am also happy to see that the effect on lower-income
households is being taken into consideration. Thank you! Would also love to see city-wide composting as
an option in the future. It would be great if we could address other single-use plastics such as straws, drink
cups, etc as well. The Exchange (in Old Town) requires plastic cups to be used if drinking in the communal
area - I see a lot of waste in this business cluster in particular (I love the businesses, but can't help but be
bothered by the amount of waste).
I know it's good for the environment but I have a problem being forced to supply my own bag at all times.
My second issue relates to all the other stores that use plastic bags (big box stores, carry-out restaurants).
Seems the policy does not treat all businesses equally.
Please ban all single use plastics ASAP!
A marketing effort to achieving voluntary adoption by consumers is essential. Otherwise, it will become a
political issue. The same approach that was taken re: littering 50 years ago should be used to raise public
awareness and buy-in.
Putting a fee on the use of paper bags would only affect those of us who don't have a lot of money.
Absolutely unacceptable.
It is time for single use plastics and for plastic bags to be banned in our city!
It should be a beginning to banning all single use plastics in Fort Collins and in Colorado.
Will this actually happen this time around??? Please keep this moving forward!
Don’t understand why the fee for paper? Just to encourage reusable bags? I didn’t like the paper fee last
time the plastic ban was proposed
Require grocery stores to use our reusable bags. Right now, Trader Joe’s will bag with my reusable bags
but Safeway will not. At Safeway, I am required to bag my own groceries if I want to use reusable bags. I
have no objection to bagging my own groceries but when you are purchasing an entire cart full of groceries
it really slows the process down since I can’t start bagging until I have unloaded my cart.
I fucking hate plastic sooo much get rid of it!!!
Support banning plastic bags. Policy should apply equally to all Fort Collins residents. Not clear on the
paper bag focus at this time. This policy should not increase city staff.
Not understanding why paper bag fee be used for plastic mitigation costs
Do ban plastics, but keep paper as a free alternative.
This all sounds great and I am so happy to see this coming onto the ballot. I wish it could become effective
sooner than 2022, and I also wish that we could be recycling more plastics here in Fort Collins.
In addition to paper bags, I'm in favor of banning single-use straws and take-out utensils. Many times, I've
asked restaurants not to include single-use utensils, as I'm taking the food home anyway, and they still do.
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Reducing grocery bags is a great place to start reducing plastics. Thanks! Schools need to be another
focus. PSD currently supplies students with plastic bottles of Nestle water at lunch, with few options in the
cafeteria and school to refill a cup or water bottle (some schools have PTO or school funded bottle filling
stations.) With about 2,000 students in PSD, if only half get bottled water, by the end of the school year
that’s 180,000 plastic water bottles! Can we get kids to be the change by teaching them how to reduce
waste at their schools?
no fee just ban the bags and do all the other stuff. We shouldn't have to pay for the irresponsibility of out of
state corporations
I believe that reporting is important to see if the policies are working, however believe that such reporting
should be done at a minimum cost to ensure that the revenue earned from any plastics/paper charges are
not primarily supporting administration costs.
It is easy to get into the habit of using reusable bags, I’d encourage that also. I’ve done this for over 30
years. If we got into the habit of wearing masks, then the reusable bags is very doable. I’ve used same
bags for several years before they wear out.
Please take action ASAP on not just single use plastics but those that cannot be recycled.
There is no reason to delay implementation. The notion that cloth bags are "dirty" is bogus. Stores that
have started banning or restricting us from bringing our own bags are misguided at best. This is a policy
that should have been implemented 10 years ago, instead you caved in to the tinfoil hat wearing, sharpie
chart waving "investigative journalist" (you know who) and her ilk.
Length of residence? Really? Is this how the city intends to fashion policy? I've been here nearly 40 years
(since I came to CSU for my bachelor's degree), but that is not relevant any more than the "Fort Collins
native" that people seem to find important.
How many times have the public rejected this and you want to keep trying to shove this down our throats.
I'm tired of the government wanting to control every portion of our lives.
Implementing sooner than May 2022, this policy is long overdue.
I I do not understand how getting rid of plastic bags will impact low income and other groups
The city tries to cram this ordinance or similar ones down the throats of citizens every few years. Trying to
slip it by during a pandemic is reprehensible. Your online polls will be skewed because those who are most
interested (i.e. the same folks who try to get this on the agenda as often as possible), will participate far
more than those who would typically not be aware of the proposal until the learned about it at real-word
events. Is their signage regarding this encouraging input posted AT the grocery stores? You need to reach
those who are impacted WHERE they are impacted.
We use our plastic bags for trash and cat litter, instead of buying over sized plastic trash can bags. There is
only the 2 of us and we usually only have 1-2 grocery bags of trash in our trash container for disposal. Most
times it is only 1. We recycle as much as possible, so our trash has always been a small amount. I use
reusable grocery bags most of the time and only use plastic bags when we are running low. I think banning
or charging for bags is ridiculous, especially considering the cost of them were factored into the cost of
groceries years ago! I know some people are reckless about the bags, but not all should be penalized for a
few.
Let’s do this!
We did this in Austin while I lived there and it was wonderful...once we got used to it. Plastic bags are a
terrible burden for our planet and dangerous to animals.
Who says plastic and paper bags are SINGLE USE??? You are making assumptions. I save both types of
bags and use them for many other purposes. I also recycle the excess bags (both plastic and paper). Do
your research. See what people do. The city is just looking for a way to add another revenue-generating
TAX
Be more innovative, not punishing
I prefer to use self checkout at large grocery stores. Trying to use a reusable bag always creates a problem
at self checkout. Is there a way Council can get local grocery stores to fix that?
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A TAX, not a fee
Reuseable bags are expensive for some. Grocery stores are not the only big users. Think about
department stores, also. Will biodegradable bags be available as legal, free substitutes? What are the
model cities that have adopted this policy doing, how has it worked, and can these successful programs be
used in an education campaign before the vote?
I think banning plastic bags is a wonderful idea, but I think we need to be extremely considerate of the
burden that fees on paper bags will have on Fort Collins families; I think that, first, the fee should only go
towards helping Fort Collins take care of our environment. Second, I'm not sure how we could make sure
this policy does not harm low income families. I think community outreach is definitely the first step, so
thank you!
Banning single use bags during a pandemic is a horrible idea. The bags shoppers bring with them have
been exposed to viruses, dirt and bacteria from the shopper's home/garage floor and automobile. This will
lead to the spread and transmission of disease. Let's find a sensible way to eliminate plastic waste
including elimination of the sale of single-serving bottled water, requiring refills to be sold for products sold
in plastic containers, and waxed paper food containers to replace plastic.
Let's not make the "cure" worse than the problem!
Hello,
Question #1 was hard for me to answer b/c the two items, while linked in the proposed ordinance, have
different impacts, source materials, cost -- both monetary and societal. It would have been better if Q#1
would have been phrased as such:
QUESTION #1
Overall Policy: How strongly do you support the following?
a. Plastic bag ban, beginning in May 2022
b. Paper bag fee at large grocers, beginning in May 2022
You will notice I selected Somewhat Support for Q#1 and Strongly Support for Q#2. I support fee on paper
but don't necessarily want it tied to the plastic bag ban. I think there needs to be two separate ordinances.
After all, paper bags are HIGHLY recyclable, cause limited local pollution and impacts on our inland land
and water environments. If they "escape," they break down quickly. When did you last see a paper bag
blowing along down College Ave. or caught in the branches of a tree, or smothering a goose? I have seen
all three for plastic bags (a curse on the land!) and none for paper. Finally, paper bags can be made from
0% to 100% recycled -- post-consumer recycled or pre-consumer recycled. They also are 100% recyclable.
And if the virgin material is sources from FSC or equiv. forests, have limited ecological impacts.
HOW ABOUT THIS?: Instead of a fee on paper bags, require ALL grocery retailers -- not just large ones:
anyway how do you objectively define large? -- to use 100% recycled paper bags with a *minimum* of 50%
post-consumer recycled. If they do this, then there is no fee. Saves the retailer the hassle of collecting the
fee and the consumer of paying it.
The City of Fort Collins is -- by its own definition -- a sophisticated, data-driven organization. As such you
should not use survey questions and methods that "steer" public opinion. In politics, these are called "push"
surveys; you push the answer you want. Please do not use these, as you did in Q#1 That is devious and
not fair. You owe the engaged (and not so engaged!) citizens more than high school level polling. You CAN
do better; so start doing surveys that way -- or engage the services of a professional polling organization.
FINALLY: Thank you for you work and the survey. If you want to contact me, my name is Philip Friedman
970 227-6526 or phifri@frii.com. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss more.
FINALLY, FINALLY: Where you say: "All fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required." Well, NO fields are
marked. Whoops!
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Regards,
Phil
The middle of a pandemic is a disastrous time to consider this item. ALL council who approved it should be
voted out and all staff who support it should be removed.
Thank you! Plastic pollution is a threat to all life on earth. Let’s be on the right side of history.
How much is the paper bag fee?
Surely the City has more pressing issues than paper and/or plastic. Banning plastic will not make this a
better place to live. We have restaurants struggling to stay open, high unemployment due to COVID
restrictions, a constant stream of homeless people coming to our fair city to take advantage of the generous
resources offered, a drop in revenues in the city coffers due to COVID, etc. People can choose paper,
plastic or BYOB (bring your own bag). We can make good choices in this area. By and large, I see the
populace of Fort Collins as being able to make bag choices without City intervention. The City needs to
deal with issues each citizen cannot deal with on their own efforts. Hiring auditors to ensure compliance
and hiring people to crunch numbers for reporting on performance measures will just add more to the City
payroll. Do we really need that?
I strongly support some action on single use plastics. We have to take action. I would also support a fee for
plastic bags instead of a ban or a fee for a year before a ban.
We desperately need places where people can take their old plastic bags for reuse or recycling.
Also, I'd like to see a LOT(!) more documentation showing the environmental impact of all of the
alternatives being considered. So far this doesn't appear to be well thought out.
I'd like to see *data* from other communities on policies they've implemented and effects. I am concerned
about impacts on people with lower incomes. I've also heard a news report, but not looked into myself, that
cloth bags have a much higher lifecycle footprint than disposable plastic bags because cloth is resource-
intensive to produce. So I hope our policies will be informed by the best data available. I'd also like to see
more done about other single-use plastics - we've been using NoCo Nosh to support local restaurants
during COVID, and getting some restaurants to NOT include plastic utensils, condiment packages, etc. has
been impossible.
We traveled in France and there are no plastic bags there. Even the outdoor markets offered cloth bags.
It’s not hard. I also want leaky meat packages with styrofoam bottoms eliminated so I don’t need to ask for
plastic bags. And we need to get rid of styrofoam too.
Forget all of it. Leave us alone. We can make our own decisions on climate, health and diet.
Fort Collins trails most so called progressive cities in taking this action. City council has failed the citizens
by not taking this action previously. At least put it to a vote of the people rather than using poorly sourced
data or listening to loud voices who show up at random meetings. We can do better.
I don’t think both a ban and a fee will pass. I submit that only a plastic ban should be sought at this time.
Otherwise plastic will continue to be a problem. Unless the ban and fee timing is a staggered one. But that
would have to be made clear in the ballot measure.
Thank you!
I reuse plastic grocery bags for trash disposal especially cat litter and adult diapers. I am currently
purchasing biodegradable ones on Amazon. They are not that expensive. I would much rather require
stores to use these kind of bags than paper...also, I have my groceries delivered and paper bags ALWAYS
rip and spill the contents. If stores have to charge a minimal fee for the small difference in cost between
their regular bags and biodegradable ones, so be it, but that needs to be checked so they don't take
advantage. It would be easy enough for them to waive the fee for those on food stamps.
Why 2022? This is doable in 2021. It's been discussed enough already. Just do it!
I am all for banning plastic bags but not sure if they should charge for paper bags. Presently we don't pay
for the plastic bags. But do think it's a good idea if there is a need to pay for the paper bag that some of the
money goes to a good use.
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I reuse my grocery store plastic bags: dog waste; trash can liners; laundry; packing, etc. If fees are
charged, I'll be using single use bags that I pay for (and which will only be used once). If this is
implemented, grocery stores should provide free bags (versus charging $1 or more to purchase.....)
Over and over again the majority of citizens have said we do not want plastic bag bans nor fees for paper
bags. Why do this now during the middle of Covid if you must?
Please stop adding to governmental regulations and fees. There are far more important things to think
about than this silly issue. You are not there to make these kinds of decisions for citizens.
It’s RIDICULOUS! Move on to something important like getting businesses FULLY reopened! Wake up!!
I re-use those plastic bags whenever possible- but the are making them so thin that they often tear after
only one use. If anything, they should make them like they used to.
DON’T DO IT!!!!
I use these bags as trash bags so I don’t have to buy trash bags, & recycle defective bags at the grocery
store so no chance of them becoming airborne!!!!!!!!
I hate that I haven't been able to use my reusable bags during the pandemic. Looking forward to not having
to get a bag again. Would like to ultimately see all single use plastics banned
The sooner the better.
Sorry folks. Not only has this been tried before, but it strikes me as a ideologically determined (NOT
environmentally necessary) windmill tilt. I would begin the criticism by pointing out that no data is being
(nor has been, to the best of my knowledge) presented on how big of a problem plastic bags actually
currently pose. Heavy on assertions, light on real data, even anecdotal. Please use our resources,
including taxes, better than this.
Diversion of wastes should not be the burden of individuals or their communities. It is a falsehood that most
of the pollution and waste can be attributed to individual behavior, but rather is a consequence of
multimillion dollar corporations being exempt from having to invest in reusable materials at their own
expense. The arguments against straws and plastic bags are rooted in ableist and classist ideology. Low
income people are expected to subsidize the reckless and lazy behavior of industries that package items in
plastics and other nonbiodegradable materials. Manufacturers, grocers and retailers should be responsible
for making this transition, not consumers. This needs to be done on an industry level, not a local or state
level, and not at the cost burden of the populace.
People can bring their own bags or ask for paper bags or reuse the plastic bags for diapers, cat litter or dog
poop. I believe our city is comprised of smart people who are interested in saving the planet without the
government telling us how to do that.
Our family has lived in another community where this was already in place in Oregon. It really helped us
make new habits of bringing our own bags and I ended up liking it more (you can fit so many more
groceries in reusable bags and it feels good to not waste and throw away so many plastic bags). I firmly
believe people will not make this change unless it is required of them. I know my family probably wouldn’t
have made the change on our own-and now I’ll never go back
The policy is not necessary, will hurt businesses and will create more government bureaucracy and
wasteful spending on regulation and enforcement. Rather, encourage continued reuse of plastic bags
which is already widespread. Banning plastic bags at stores will just create a market for buying of bulk
plastic bags for personal use (i.e. for trash bags in cars, small bins in bathrooms, picking up dog poop,
fillings from cat litter box, diapers, etc.)
We have covered this topic multiple times and a petition campaign. Don’t ignore that.
Please re-double efforts to limit other plastics like straws, take out packaging moving towards cardboard or
foil. Education regarding filling bags at grocery stores which has been studied and proven to be helpful.
I would support providing reusable bags to low-income people rather than exempting them from the policy.
My main concern with taxing paper bags is the impact on low income folks so I appreciate the opportunity
for them to qualify for free bags. I don't want this to impact accessibility to food for anyone. Love the policy
otherwise!
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I strongly support the ban on plastic bags. However, I worry about the impact of a fee for paper bags for low
income individuals.
This fall both King Soopers and Safeway quit making paper bags available at any price. I wonder if this is
an early attempt to thwart this effort to ban plastics. Steamboat Springs has passed a similar ordinance.
We could learn from their experience. Side note: Gallegos Sanitation this year made it mandatory to bag
garbage in plastic bags within their wheeled garbage containers. For those of us who routinely collect
garbage within the house in brown grocery bags, this means purchasing a non-degradable single use
plastic bag just to get the garbage from the house to the curb.
The makers of trash bags (Glad, Hefty, etc.) are hoping that plastic bags get eliminated everywhere so they
can sell more bags! I use grocery bags in my small trash cans (bedrooms, bathrooms). And I use bags
from other retail places in my slightly larger trash cans. I have to buy bags for my kitchen trash can
because of its 13-gallon size, but I buy no others. A plastic bag does not leave my house until it contains
trash!
Plastic and paper will continue to be needed and used. This ban and the laws and enforcement needed
will only put more hardship on businesses and consumer alike. So called "single use" plastic bags are
used put to good use in many ways such as lining trash bags. Banning them will simply mean people will
have to buy plastic liners. How will that solve the problem? Enforcing laws costs money and puts more
strain on business to comply with yet another measure to control.
This is a good start but the city could choose to go further by actually increasing recycling requirements on
waste management companies.
I find it acceptable to ban plastic bags.
I DO NOT support a fee on paper bags.
Paper bags are recyclable just as other paper products are. Reusable bags from home have been found to
carry germs if not properly cleaned. How many of these bags should I be required to bring to a store if I am
doing my weekly shopping? Why should I be forced to pay a fee for a paper bag if it is a last minute
decision to shop at a grocery store and I do not have my own grocery bag?.
If a fee for paper bags is included in the proposed ordnance, I'll have to vote against its passage.
Offering free reusable bags at grocery stores for low income households instead of plastic bags.
While I support the idea of trying to improve our sustainability and reduce plastic usage, I strongly oppose
this idea. Our household uses canvas bags whenever we go grocery shopping but there are valid uses for
plastic and paper bags. When we have meat scraps from dinner we can tie them off in a plastic bag
without having to smell up the whole house or waste an entire kitchen bag (which is more plastic). My wife
uses paper bags as part of her baking. There are dozens of other ways we reuse these bags. This
measure is significant overreach and we are 100% opposed to the effort.
I would love to see data resulting from this made public so that it can be a beacon for other communities to
follow suit.
Give away cotton canvas bags with the city's or the shop's logo, made in the U.S.; ask shops to give refund
to shoppers who bring their own bags or boxes to carry away the shopping.
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In my opinion, we are way past the time of needing to get this started. We are so far behind, and we've
already done so much damage to the environment, to the detriment of the animals who inhabit the planet
with us. And, even though Fort Collins has bright people who generally seem like they want to try to help
the environment, when it comes to actually doing it, they're going to have to step up.
I go into King Soopers here in town (North College and College/Harmony), and almost no one has reusable
bags (even pre-COVID). But it's really very easy to bring reusable bags! If you forget them in your car, you
go back to your car and get them. Or, put them on the front seat and set your purse on top of them when
you get in the car. It takes a little bit of effort and retraining yourself, but it's not that hard. After you wash
your bags, you put them by the front door, and it's pretty much a no-brainer that you grab your bags when
you go out to the car.
The only thing you might need a plastic bag for is really soggy lettuce or a leaky meat package, certainly
not when you're carrying your groceries out to the car. People have gotten so used to getting plastic bags
without thinking -- so, they're going to have to actually stop and think and get "unused" to it.
People may whine at first, but we've got to get started on this!
There definitely is a concern about low-income households and unhoused folks, who may be using the
plastic bags for other things, such as for bagging trash or keeping belongings dry if they're out in the rain.
Or they might not have a way to reliably wash reusable bags. How to do this without singling out low-
income people at the cash register might be a challenge. Has anyone asked folks at the Murphy Center
and others how this might work?
In addition to "policing" businesses to make sure that they comply (because, as we've seen with masks
during the pandemic, even when it's for a greater good, some businesses may not comply), maybe there's
a way to make this a positive thing as well? A contest or a way to get positive press if they do well, or
something? And maybe random people who bring reusable bags could win a percentage off of their
groceries or something?
I guess a place to start is at grocery stores, but really, Target or Walgreens or any other store in town
should also help out with this. People could also bring a reusable bag when they buy a pair of pants or buy
a widget at the hardware store.
I disagree strongly with charging for paper bags and as it negatively affects the less privileged.
With pick up orders for groceries during the pandemic not allowing personal reusable bags it seems like the
timing of this initiative to ban plastic bags is off. How will pick up orders for groceries be able to be in
compliance with the ban on plastic bags and the policy to charge for paper bags be handled? Are pick up
orders from restaurants exempt? While I have been supportive of previous attempts to ban single use
plastic bags, the timing of this initiative is wrong and should be postponed until after the pandemic is under
control.
I think that charging a fee for the use of plastic bags would be at least as efficacious, if not more so, as an
ourright ban.
We should encourage the use of biodegradable bags/take out containers.
Banning plastic bags provided by grocery stores will force people who used them to line trash baskets to
purchase suitable plastic bags from other stores.
I agree that some of these bags end up in fences, etc. but what fraction of the total number of bags does
this represent? If it's very small, as I suspect, it seems extreme to ban all of these bags because few of
them end up in undesirable places. What fraction of these bags are recycled? What fraction are used for
other purposes such as holding trash or storage?
Single use plastic bags are used to pick up dog poop. Also, government is to big and is no longer
manageable. Taxation and "Fees" are a direct burden on taxpayers not a benefit.
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We are in the midst of a pandemic that disproportionately affects the poor and working-class. It is
particularly cruel to pass a bag fee now. Even though it wouldn’t go into effect until 2022, the impact of the
pandemic will still be felt then.
City Council researched but chose not to pursue a number of other possibilities that do not place the
burden on working-class residents. These include:
○ Funding programs to incentivize consumers to bring their own reusable bags to retail outlets
○ “opt-in” versus “opt-out” on single-use plastic utensils for restaurant take-out and delivery
○ Ending the use of single-use plastic utensils at dine-in restaurants
○ Enacting a business-focused single-use plastics ban similar to Palo Alto’s Disposable Foodware
Reduction Program
○ Funding programs to incentivize businesses using compostable packaging and foodware
○ Couching the language of plastic restrictions in terms of a comprehensive community effort rather than a
hard ban on end consumers that could be seen as government overreach and/or poor-shaming
Reusable bags need to be introduced first, at all retailers. If income is an issue, make these free for low-
income individuals rather than make them continually prove poverty to waive the bag fee.
I don't know how you could realistically reduce fee for low income people, but I agree that is a good idea.
The best thing to do is look into successful programs in other cities so that we don't have to go backwards if
this goes through. The city should also consider strongly supporting bulk products at some point soon, that
is where we can make a huge difference. Part of the education needs to be that this would be one small
action, because people are the irony in having 10 plastic produce bags in their paper bag. Bulk products
are where we can make a huge difference.
I like the idea of offering free reusable bags to low income families and/or an exemption of fees all together.
I lived in Boulder when this was implemented. While i sort of groaned about it at first it absolutely reduced
my usage of plastic bags and changed some of my wasteful habits. I began to remember my reusable
bags more often. I quit using plastic bags as liners in my small trash cans.
One negative was i ended up with too many paper bags which I accumulated because there were times I
still forgot my reusable bags.
Thanks for considering this important step forward for our city and earth!
Although I support the goal of reducing plastics to protect the environment, I do not support the policy
method being proposed. This policy is of concern especially given the curbside pick-up of groceries that
has become even more popular and necessary during COVID. I expect this trend to continue even after
COVID. How will it work for those that use these curbside services? There must be an exception or
alternative for making this service feasible. I suggest more effort be put into educating the public about
better reuse of the plastic bags or recycling of the bags rather than a complete ban. Also, an incentive
program, similar to what Sprouts has of a $0.05 discount for using reusable bags, might be a better option
than a complete ban.
Beyond eliminating plastic grocery bags, I would love to see progress made on reducing plastic bags used
for food (ex. bags of apples) and styrofoam by restaurants.
This is has already been struck down by the voters. The people have spoken.
Stay out of my shopping experience and stop adding more taxes called fees. I don’t see plastic bags all
over causing a problem. Why should I be penalized because I misjudged how much I am buying at the
grocery store at any given time. What happens to all the reusable bags that aren’t going to hold up in the
long run. They are going to clog up land fills. I already see many people using reusable bags without the
penalty of fees/taxes.
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I would also support policies charging an extra tax on other single-use plastics such as water bottles. On a
larger scale, I would also support taxes or fees on plastic packaging by manufacturers. This includes
shipping material, packaging materials, serving materials, etc.
As far as the specific proposed city policy, I empathize little with exceptions for low-income households.
The fees are so minimal and there are very affordable options for reusable options. I would be more
supportive of programs providing free re-usable products (e.g. grocery bags) for a limited period to help
support low income compliance with the program.
I am less supportive of fees on paper bags and products. These products are renewable and I consider a
much better alternative to single-use plastics. I hate seeing paper vilified in the same policies as single-use
plastics.
How about letting retailers lead the way without an ordinance, like rewarding people who bring their own
bag with a discount on their purchase. The retailer saves the cost of the bag and passes a reward to the
eco-conscious customer.
I love the plastic ban but do not agree with a fee for paper.
Sounds good
We are a bit behind on this because of caving to the plastic bag zealots back in 2014. Put the onus on the
people/industries that are making money off this insidious convenience. If you're really concerned about
the impact on low-income and underrepresented groups maybe we shouldn't have spent $11.5 million on a
whitewater park.
Do it now!
Sustainability policies should not increase financial burden of low-income households.
I'm not sure I agree with a city imposed fee for paper bags. I think a better approach would be to impose a
fee for plastic bags and use the money from that to encourage use of re-usable bags. The city could even
use some of that money to commission local artists to create re-usable bag designs specific to Fort Collins
- promote the city, encourage recycling, promote natural areas etc. If these bags were cool and available at
the checkout for cheap, people would use them. I don't think a fee for paper bags is useful, and forcing
grocers to calculate and report additional information - impact on low-income etc - does not encourage
them to support the greater goal of reducing the use of plastic bags. Paper bags, while not the optimal use
of resources, are better than plastic, and their continued availability provides a reasonable option for those
of low-income or those who just want to resist rules from the city. Address that problem later.
Fast food and other restaurants should ask if patrons need plastic utensils or straws rather than include
them in the order. Create a PSA showing people with a set of real utensils in their car, back pack or lunch
bag.
I think that there should be a fee for plastic bags! People respond better with a positive outcome to their
behavioral change. Save money by bringing your own bags. I realize that grocers give out most bags, but I
think an ordinance should affect all stores equally. Do big box stores count as grocers if they have “some”
food available? Is there an incentive to develop and use a bag that biodegrades/breaks down after use
(after exposed to sun or water)? I am tired of chasing bags and fishing them out of trees. I’d love for them
to go away, but others think they can’t live without them.
I don't believe the need for plastic/paper bags is income dependent. Reusable bags are inexpensive, and
could be subsidized for low income users.
Definitely need to ban plastic bag use. During the pandemic, use of plastic increased greatly, as
cashiers/baggers couldn't touch folks' bags. I've continued to bring my own bags and sack my own
groceries, and I was one of few who did so (at King Soopers...folks are better about using their own bags at
Sprouts). Plastic, especially single-use is so harmful to the environment; let's ban it and get people to step
us/re-use...it's not that hard.
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Long overdue; please do not let large grocers or lobbyists stall this much needed step to get single-use
plastic bags out of stores!
Why have a fee on paper bags? They're recyclable and sustainable from trees grown for the purpose. We
had paper long before plastic bags. "Retraining," Really, on how to use a paper bag?! Many stores
already provide reusable bags/boxes.
Ban plastic, not paper bags and promote use of reusable bags.
Great that we're finally rolling with this--great start!
Here here!! Thank you for initiating this!!!!!!! Re: low-income households and exemptions, could there be a
different system, like providing them reusable bags, if the purchase of a reusable bag is limiting for them.
Plastic bags need to be out of circulation completely, granting an exemption and allowing low-income
households to use them doesn't make sense.
Grocers refuse to touch customers' multiuse bags because of covid. People must pack their own bags.
This is not the time to ban plastic and paper bags.
Wrong time for this - business is just trying to survive. And the suggestions above - will cost more than the
fee can generate. This is a loosing option. Let's figure out a way to recycle these bags - they are a
valuable commodity.
I do not support the fee on paper bags without exempting low-income customers.
Plastic bags should not be banned, just charge a fee. Some are used for trash bags, if you ban plastic bags
then people will compensate by purchasing more trash bags. Sometimes one purchases something that
could leak on one's backpack so plastic bags have some utility. Granted, they are currently overly used, but
a fee would address this.
Paper bag fee should be low - around 5 cents per bag or less. I have equity concerns with respect to the
plastic bag ban/paper bag fee.
Thank you for considering this policy.
Plastic bags are bad, but styrofoam containers concern me more.
I fully support reducing plastic waste, however the financial burden of the transition away from plastic
should not be shouldered by consumers/ working class people.
It's about time.....should have been doing this 20 years ago. Better late than never....Large groceries that
are publicly traded have PLENTY of money to cover this as they take advantage of the public crisisis and
make tons of money by raising prices on popular items during the COVID crisis. Don't feed corps more
money when they should be giving back to communities they operate and extort. In fact, if a large grocery
has any history of stock buybacks using Trumper tax cuts for rich instead of raising employee salaries or
giving back to community, then they should be excluded completely from any cost recovery for
paperbags....
I would prefer that some of the revenue from paper bags would go toward giving low income customers
reusable bags vs. paper bags if possible.
Thank you very much for doing this!
I support fees and banning of single use plastic, but leave paper bags alone! We often get paper bags, but
always reuse them in various ways!
Now (or better yet, yesterday) is the time to get serious on taking care of the environment!
Small businesses should be exempt from any bans.
Many of us in this community are concerned about the impacts of single-use plastics, but legislating,
charging fees and potentially escalating to audits and fines are not desirable, nor will they have a willing
reception. This type of ordinance failed here before for the same reasons it will likely fail again. There are
many larger issues of greater importance that are priorities for people here than a plastic bag ban.
Encourage recycling, re-using and phasing out single-use plastics in a positive, educational and accessible
manner and many more people are likely to voluntarily change habits. Legislation, forced compliance and
punishment are not the solutions to this type of issue. You have an entire sustainability department - is this
really the best they can come up with??
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This is a great start, but other single use plastics should be targeted as well. To-go containers, plastic
cutlery, etc.
I'm surprised single-use plastic water bottles were not listed in the recent "Trails for 2021 | Eagle Watches |
Share Your Voice" email...
I think this is a very importance policy to implement. Our planet is severely impacted by plastics and we can
take action right here at home. They also cause death of animals. Plastic bags kill about 100,000 animals
annually. Many animals, including whales, dolphins, turtles, penguins, and dolphins, ingest plastic bags as
they mistake them food.
Plastic bags are non-biodegradable. Plastic can take up to 2000 years to completely decompose. In fact, all
the plastic that has ever been manufactured still lingers in the environment.
Plastic bags are made from petroleum products. Production of plastic takes 60-100 million barrels of oil
from the world’s petroleum reserves. Therefore, plastic contributes significantly to the depletion of this
valuable resource, making the prices of petroleum products to rise every passing day.
Plastic food storage packages have toxic chemicals. Studies have shown that meals that are eaten or
heated in plastic bags result in the development of ulcers, asthma, obesity, and certain cancers.
Using less plastic will lead to manufacturing less plastic which will reduce our use of fossil fuel. Personally I
do not want to see plastic bags up in trees or along the roadside either.
We have GOT to get a handle on plastics in the ecosystem. Things are so much worse with the pandemic
and everything being disposable and rarely recyclable. And I’ve noticed it’s near impossible to find clothes
for my family anymore that isn’t some sort of polyester (plastic) blend. This ban on bags is a step in the
right direction and needs to be the first of many many steps.
Education!!
Not everyone is aware of the impact of plastics on our land and oceans, and this could be perceived as just
another annoying demand from a small and specific group.
In order for people to want to follow and support culturally accepted behaviors like mindlessly using plastic
bags and throwing them away, we all need to come together at some place to agree that this is an
important change to make, and that we all support each other in making the change.
In our own privilege it is important that we ask WHY this will be disproportionately stressful for some people
in our community. It is important that we consider how such a “small” ask can be another grating stress for
many in our community who make Herculean efforts to just get through a day.
Let's please do this! Perhaps for low-income residents, the City or businesses can provide re-usable
canvas bags during the transition, and then at a later point impose paper bag fees .
Retraining retailers to no put purchased products in bags to start with. For instance, you don't need to put
one item such as a birthday card in a bag. Or ask customers if they want a bag to start with. Some people
will just put it in their purse.
Concerned with timing of vote with current covid pandemic. Unless you bag your own groceries.. service
ware. Is time consuming, you must use plastic or paper..
So HOW to communicate need for ban at this time.
Do wish take out would ask before adding serviceware.
While I support a ban on plastic full-heartedly, I cannot support a policy that imposes a forced regressive
tax.
Even with an "exemption for low-income individuals" there are many who would be left out. The method I
assume to be implemented would be based SNAP or other welfare programs. This would leave out
undocumented, houseless, and other disadvantaged groups whose lives do not fit into grossly inadequate
means-testing of our government. I strongly do not support any policy which puts undue burden on citizens
who can barely afford their groceries to begin with.
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Policies similar to this have been successful around the world. I completely support this policy, and can
only hope my fellow citizens agree, as this will only improve our city and the environment that sustains us.
Taking into account the more and most impacted by these changes is also vital, and lastly, putting forth a
way to enforce the plastic ban and charges for paper bags will ensure long lasting success of this policy
and our city.
Many people reuse these bags. Also local grocers can not even order paper bags right now. Better to use
the city resources to educate the public not to throw out, but recycle plastic.
Thank you for taking this on, Fort Collins!
Please ban plastic bags.
We are way behind in this area and should implement the proposed policies.
I do agree that if you implement this policy, you have to measure it. What I hope does not happen is that
the measurement aspects, i.e. audit, civil penalties and reporting, require significant resources on your part
and detract from greater priorities.
Also, as you roll this out, remember to tie the impacts to individual health and well-being, as well as any
economic benefits, for the folks who really don't care about the environment.
Additionally, whatever the City can do to promote use of personal container use for use or refill, ie. coffee,
bulk liquid products, etc. would be useful in limiting single use plastics consumption. Currently State (?)
guidelines won't allow retailers (coffee shops, Food Co-op) to allow consumers to use their own containers.
This may be a COVID related policy but has no merit as personal container use is promoted and deemed
safe by environmental organizations.
training of employees in personal bag use is important, often when I have informed baggers of my wish to
not use a plastic bag, they remove my item and but the bag in the trash - this cancels out the intent and
purpose of reducing single use plastics. The bag should be returned to stock, not thrown out
For every plastic bag send to bag groceries, there are maybe 3 other plastic bags used for produce and
often meat products. This must also be addressed! We must all take the time to be stewards of a
sustainable Earth!
I dont mind paying a fee. If the fee is minimal everyone should pay it. Maybe the lowest income folks can
be given reusable bags.
Although it's beyond the city's ability to control state and national policies, I support a ban on plastic
wherever possible. This is why I choose products that are packaged more sustainably and take reusable
bags to the store when shopping.
I personally use the plasstic bags for the double-bagging and disposing of adult diapers. Currently, my cost
to do this is nothing. With the implimentation of your policy, I will need to purchase bags to do this. It will not
cut down on my need for bags. It will only increase as my spouse deteriorates. An option would be for the
city to "confiscate" all the grocery bags when the policy is implimented ands then offer them to those people
who have a legitimate need for them.
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Bag fee makes profit for big stores, do not support profit for pollution.
Bag fee is less than cost to local retailers, do not harm local businesses.
Low-income should not be allowed to pollute, applies to all or none, cannot exempt 20% of population and
be taken seriously, Section 2(D).
Other plastics are a bigger problem.
2014 bag fee objections have not changed, will be overturned for same reasons, don't waste time, or are
you counting on COVID-19 to limit petition signatures?
Sustainability Services Area has been a disaster, heart in right place, but implementation fails, bag fee is
similar.
Plastic pollution is a problem, bag fee makes it worse, not better.
Stainless straws worse than plastic, need to stop going backwards.
Open to total ban or tax for ending plastic pollution.
Question 4(b), civil penalties, also criminal penalties, make illegal for store person, business fines passed
on the customer/employee, civil is not real incentive. Fine to stop national stores will put local store out of
business. Neither owner, manager, employee wants to go to jail.
Do not start May 1 2022, Jan 1st 2022 or 2023.
Since durable bags cannot be recycled, how can a bag fee that replaces a recycle product with a trash
product, be a part of a "solid waste reduction program", Section 2(C). Will the Zero Waste Program be
abandoned?
Section 2(E), keep government out of business, external controls, not internal controls.
Section 2(G), Silo view, only looks at bags reduced and shows win. Need breadth view, what increased?
Do people buy more trash bags since they can no longer use grocery bags for free? This is why
Sustainability Services Area has failed. Do not manage headline number down while bringing other
numbers up. Need systematic or permaculture view.
Bag drive to provide free reusable bags for low income residents. Extend the ban to single use takeout
containers (some places already have reusable ones) or at least require they are of plastic accepted by city
recycling.
Why wait until 2022? If you're serious, do it 2021
Other cities have done this. We need to catch up.
The world is being strangled by plastics - to be world class, Fort Collins must be a leader in removing
disposable plastics from our supply chains.
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/plastic-waste?phrase=plastic%20waste&sort=mostpopular
I believe this is creating more an of issue through trickle down consequences than actually solving a real
problem. It financially burdens everyone from the grocers to the consumers. I think this is a short sighted
and irresponsible measure to pass, especially during COVID shut downs. The City is facing revenue short
falls now and well into the future and citizens are fighting to keep their jobs. We can't even go out to eat,
why are you trying to ban bags?
Please do this!
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January 5, 2021
I would like to offer my comments regarding any bag ordinance the city council may propose. While the
current initiative seems to target only large grocery stores I would still like to comment for potential future
laws.
My wife and I operate a small retail business in Fort Collins and have for over 27 years. Our business has
nearly 25,000 sku’s (stock keeping units or individual items) and many are sold to the customer individually
and unpackaged other than a specific product label. Some type of “bagging” is often required for the
customer to manage once they leave the store.
We primarily use paper bags of several sizes (5-6) and plastic bags of differing sizes (3-4) to protect
expensive sheet paper stock, mat boards or finished Custom Framed pieces.
As every transaction is different, some with a few items and some with many, we ask the customer if they
would like a bag first before packaging their order. I would estimate about 60% to 70% of the time we use
a bag of some sort at the customer’s request.
We try to reuse packaging as much as is feasible on products we receive. We reuse manufacturers paint
boxes, slip sheets etc.
We have checked into having reusable canvas bags made or “Recycled Plastic” versions and those are
between $5.00 -$10.00 each our cost depending on quantity. These would not serve the needs for larger
items, framed pieces, or several loose items (pastels and charcoal sticks for example).
From personal experience inside and out of our business I would estimate by far most of the bag impact on
the environment is caused by the standard plastic T-Shirt style bag commonly used at Grocery store,
Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Good Will etc. We need several versatile packaging/ bagging solutions for
our business. A one size fits all approach rarely is the best option and certainly not in this case.
I recall that the prior bag ordinance proposed in Fort Collins was going to require inventory tracking of bags
used by the retailer, reporting to the city and then staff efforts to track, monitor and administer the program.
This approach could significantly multiply the costs associated with the “bagging” portion of the transaction
for the retailer, customer, and the city.
And for a minute please consider how much extra packaging waste is generated locally because of all the
on-line shopping. Each on-line purchase creates at least one box or envelope and internal packaging, a
truck to deliver it, additional street maintenance, traffic, and trash.
I am not sure what the best approach is. Maybe there are more environmentally friendly versions of the
standard T-shirt plastic bag that are compostable that would make improvements for 90% of the local bag
problem. Certainly, to address all bags required at the retail level with a single approach does not seem
like a good idea.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Steven R. Williams
Jerry’s Artarama – Fort Collins
IN THE FUTURE, PLEASE INCLUDE WHAT THE CITY WILL SPEND ANNUALLY, ENFORCING AND
MANAGING THE IMPLEMATION, CIVIL PENALTIES, REPORTING OF THIS PROGRAM AND
PROGRAMS LIKE THIS. INCLUDE CITY EMPLOYEE WAGES WITH BURDEN (BENIFITS), TRAINING,
OFFICE EQUIPTMENT AND COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS.
please ban styrofoam also, and plastic straws, and all plastics
A plastic bag ban and paper bag fee are long overdue. These are very simple measures that can have a
large beneficial impact. Any negative impacts (e.g., on low-income customers) can be easily overcome with
some foresight and planning.
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Instead of exempting low income at point of sale, make it easy for low income to apply and have some
unmarked normal looking reusable bags sent out to them. My mom was on wic when I was a kid and I still
remember her being embarrassed at checkout when something wasn’t approved or went right. We need
less of that
This is ridiculous! We are not even allowed to use our own bags now due to COVID. Yes, I'm sure that this
will have ended by the time your implementation would go into place, but to ban plastic bags is dumb. I
reuse these bags all the time for cleaning out our Cat Litter Boxes, as well as for trash bags for the smaller
trash cans. If you ban plastic bags, I will still have to buy them for our waste. If you want to spend money
on incentivizing folks to use paper and reusable bags, offer $.05 for each bag that a Citizen does NOT use.
As long as the fees don't impact low income households, i support banning plastic bags as an
environmental measure
Overall, I support any approach that:
- increases stable recycling/composting efforts
- reduces or eliminates true waste (material that cannot be recycled/composted/biodegraded)
For the paper bag fee, I overall support it. I think that large grocery business can receive a one-time fee to
help with transitioning operations from plastic to paper, but it shouldn’t be on-going financial support. A
grocery should not have an issue providing bag alternatives without receiving additional fee income (and I
could see some companies abusing the system if they are “eligible” to receive fee income).
Great idea, a move in the right direction. Thank you!
While I hate plastic bags (among other things, they do a terrible job of holding the contents) and have been
a fan of re-useable shopping bags, I also firmly believe that a better approach is to collaborate and
convince rather than relying on coersion, thus making the outcome a win-win instead of a win-lose. My
recommendation is to substitute imagination and shared leadership for legislation and enforcement.
Why not take a free-market approach where re-useable shopping bags – nicely made, FOCO branded, and
with eye-catching graphics carrying a "Save The Poudre" message - are produced and wholesaled (at a
profit) by the city? The profits could be used to fund community outreach and other programs that the “fee”
is intended to offset. Plus each bag would be a mobile billboard advertising the effort.
I’m fairly sure that prominent members and leaders of the Fort Collins business community (e.g. OtterBox,
REI, New Belgium, O’Dells,OldTown merchants, etc.) could be brought on board with a little effort.
Community organizations such as school groups, Boy and Girl Scout troops and Church organizations
could sell the bags as fundraisers. Also, I bet that the supermarkets that are the real target of this initiative
would be happy to retail the bags if there was a profit in it for them.
All this year we’ve been hearing the “...we’re all in this together..” mantra. The goal should be to get as
much of our community pulling on the oars as possible instead of handing them more mandates, rules and
fees.
Support banning plastic bags but not a fee for paper bags.
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I do not think this should end with bags. I feel very strongly that grocers need to stop providing products in
nonrecyclable plastics, like clamshells. I am unsure about giving low income people a break on bag fees. If
you do, they might not be motivated to bring their own bags, and how would you even be able to monitor
that or ask them to prove hardship? I think I’d rather see the city fund a program (Use that paper bag fee
for) for giving low-income people the number of reusable grocery bags they need as a once a year or two
event and expect citizens to start using them (i.e., no second time until the next bag dispensing event).
There is no reason I can think of why someone of low income could not use reusable bags. In fact, of the
people I note with their own bags in the stores, it is almost never someone who looks like they might be low
income (granted, I am stereotyping, but hey). I am also not in favor of grocery stores retaining any bag
fees, as they should have phased out bags a long time ago and never should have started the plastic bag
thing to begin with. I do not empathize with their cause. They have power to make some important changes
and I feel they have the means, the budgets, and the responsibility to do that. They have aided and abetted
this scourge of plastic in the name of being cheap. So, the paper bag fee I would far more likely support if it
was to do education campaigns in schools, churches, businesses, and so on, and to ensure that low
income people have reusable bags. Again, though, I am unsure how you would prove hardship in this case.
I do not feel that coffee shops and such should continue to use anything but compostable cups and
dishware/flatware, although I remain extremely doubtful that “Compostable” plastics are any better. I do
think people ought to be rewarded for reusing their own cups and takeout ware, and penalized by fee for
not doing that. Straws should be banned. Every store that sells take ought to also sell the reusable ware
customers can buy, like reusable straws, bowls, cups, etc. There is no reason to have any longer to allow
restaurants to use those styrofoam boxes for leftovers. If they need to charge a small 5 of 10 cent fee for a
doggie bag item container that is compostable (cardboard, e.g.), so be it. But styrofoam should be illegal. It
should also be illegal in packaging. Thankfully, I am starting to see recycled cardboard forms used instead
of styrofoam, but not often enough. Another scourge is plastic plant pots. The nurseries should be required
to take them back for reuse or use only compostable pots made of cardboard. i am talking from the small
flats of plants all the way to 1-gallon pots, and making it mandatory to return the big 5+ gallon pots
(customer leaves a deposit and gets it refunded when they return the pots). Appliances and IT hardware
should be manufactured only with recyclable or reusable materials or parts. Hotels and motels should NOT
be allowed to use those packages that go with the coffee stations in the rooms because nobody ever uses
everything in the package, which includes plastic wrap and a plastic stir stick. There is no reason why they
could supply individual sugar packets, a napkin dispenser, and wooden stir sticks in paper wrapping. Then
there is CSU, where I work. It APPALS me to no end that students are not required to do a better job of
sorting, recycling. Sometime after covid, go to the Lory Center and see how pathetic it is... barrels full of
everything from food waste to trash to recyclables. I once spoke to someone who said that custodial staff
actually go through that mess to sort. WHAT? I could NOT believe it! Not only is that time consuming thus
expensive and putting staff at risk, it teaches these soiled college kids nothing! During the busiest hours,
there should be a student proctor system whereby students proctor other students at trash and compost
and recycle barrels to ensure proper sorting. There also should be better signage and required training for
all students on proper trash/compost/recycling at the start of each semester. I could go on and on.... but I
will support just about anything we can do to stop plastics manufacture in the first place ahead of reuse,
repurpose, and last recycle, but also to start making the 3 Rs mandatory. Thank you for the opportunity to
comment.
I would hope that cardboard boxes would be an option as they are at Natural Grocers which has eliminated
plastic bags altogether. I would support a full ban on plastic grocery bags.
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Having seen the photos of beaches in Peru and Bali littered with plastic bags, I'm in favor of the ban. CO is
such an environmentally friendly state, and stopping plastic bags seems consistent with our values. When I
lived in Moscow more than a decade ago, every store charged a small fee to use plastic bags. There were
no paper bag options. That drove behavior.
I'm not in favor of adding a tax on paper bags - worry about the economic impact on large grocers.
Some other questions I have - would be helpful to have these answers:
1) where do plastic bags carried into the CO rivers end up?
2) what do the large grocers say about this proposal?
3) Can we suggest a ban on plastic without adding a tax on paper bags?
4) Given a number of other cities have implemented a ban on plastic bags, I'm curious what you've learned
from them about how they handle the regressive impact on this ban on low income population. What do
they do?
Thank you for your consideration and leadership in these issues.
This is very important. Thank you.
A plastic bag ban would be wonderful for our community and the health of the environment in general.
There is so much plastic waste these days, it is disgraceful! Anything we can do to help mitigate
disposable plastic waste is a priority. Lastly, please don't bend to the petroleum & plastic lobbyists who
claim that this is a burden on low-income residents. Bag fees are very minor, and reusable bags or boxes
are easy to come by - so there are easy substitutes to disposables. Petroleum & plastic companies
couldn't care less about low-income residents, they just want to maintain their profits and use this as an
excuse to block plastic bag bans!
Other large cities like Austin have implemented this policy. Please research the policies that have been
implemented and identify what made their effective. Coming from Austin, the learning curve is the hardest
part of switching to reusable bags. However, it was easy to adopt and if I didn't have a bag, I was charged
$0.10 for each bag. Small price to pay for a huge environmental impact.
The economic ripple effects will result in increased costs for grocery stores and local companies. The
environmental ripple effects will be far worse if we are unable to modernize our city and catch up to what so
many US cities have already done. Our water supply and our wildlife in Fort Collins are such an integral
part of what makes this a special city. City Council, do your part to ensure the integrity of our environment
by decreasing the amount of plastic waste that has a chance to end up in our rivers, our animals and our
city's beautiful open land.
Would this policy apply only to grocers or also to restaurants offering take out and other businesses (many
businesses currently use plastic bags)? How would businesses be supported in making this transition?
Could reusable bags be provided free of charge to low income shoppers? How would low income shoppers
be supported without significant hassle and stress (i.e. being asked to provide proof of income level each
time they buy groceries)? I am absolutely in support of a ban on plastic bags, but I am much less
supportive of a fee for paper bags. Why do you think the fee on paper bags is necessary? An argument for
the fee is not clear to me from all the information you have provided on this issue.
Plastics keep people healthy. Cloth bags get gross. Whatever policy is proposed should apply equally. If it
is important enough for some of us, it is important enough for all of us.
All this is good but I think that a bigger problem is all the single use plastic every where else. Walk into any
grocery store and you will see walls of food in single use "clam shell" containers that cannot be recycled. A
much bigger problem that plastic grocery bags.
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Contingency plans- When COVID started, recycled bags were not permitted. We need to prepare for a no-
fee solution if recycled bags are too risky. Second, how will financial need be determined at the grocery
store? If you were unemployed in one year your tax records may not show your current status. I do not
want to burden the moderate and low income on basic groceries because of a bag fee. I also do not want to
increase fees and risk of penalties to grocery stores, which may pass the cost to struggling families.
Needs to be proceeded by a strong educational campaign to prevent resentment of the City among the
less-informed
Stop this ridiculous micro-managing.
Please work on real problems like homeless population growth. People can just go to Timnath WalMart
and leave the store with a plastic bag and no tax $ for Fort Collins!
If you want to bring your own bags to the store, bring your own bags. Launch a marketing campaign even.
But don't force others to. Adding a fine to the better of two options after you've taken one away seems
ludicrous. It's hard to picture this as anything more than the elites of this town thinking they know best and
shoving it down everyone else's throats.
I support the ban on plastic bags and the fee on paper bags, and I support the audit. But I don't support
having penalties right at the outset. I would prefer to have faith in people to comply because they
understand and support these policy changes. However ... if good faith does not work to bring down the
level of plastic pollution within some reasonable time frame, then I would support implementing penalties at
that time. Thank you for taking these important steps to reduce plastic pollution!
Continue to allow and support reusable grocery bags to eliminate plastic and conserve our paper/trees.
Begin a strong community awareness and education program on the need to reduce plastic consumption
immediately. There is no need for the mass use of plastic produce bags that goes on. Education is
paramount. Some folks place already bagged produce in an additional plastic bag. Outrageous.
Any proposal dedicated to the well being of the Planet and the community regarding plastics needs to be
undertaken at the highest of levels. It is not difficult to shop with canvas and other reusable bags. I have
been for over 25 years. American consumers have been taught to be lazy and irresponsible when it comes
to over consumption of all resources!
Sincerely. Renee Price
Banning plastic bags is one topic. Charging a fee for paper bags is different and shouldn't grouped in study
questions. You could propose a ban on paper bags, too, but saying ban plastic bags and therefore a fee on
paper bags is necessary is deceptive.
There didn't used to be plastic bags. Somehow we were able to carry on without them. Like many other
large and small things we have to change our thinking. We can do it!
If this part of the survey is only on bags, then realize many other stores and fast food establishments put
products in plastic bags for customers to carry out. I strongly hope you also address the waste from fast
food plastic straws, lids, Styrofoam containers, plastic beverage bottles, and little plastic shooters (50 mL
liquor bottles).
Let's get it done!
No fee or small charge (5 cents / 1- cents) on the paper bags - the cost reductions and money saved from
businesses no longer having to purchase plastic bags should be used towards mitigating pollution +
retraining etc instead of pushing this cost onto consumers.
This issue is extremely important to me, and I am incredibly heartened to know that our city is focusing on
it. THANK YOU! Though I'm a full-time working mom, I would be happy to help out in any way that I can, so
please contact me if help is needed:
morganbridger@gmail.com
970-310-3699
During this pandemic, the grocery stores have gone back to using plastic bags. They will not use paper
and if you bring your own, you have to sack your groceries. Obviously, plastic is healthier for humans.
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The city wants to access fees and charges to solve everything. Plastic bags are an efficient way to
transport grocery items and other purchased goods. Is the problem at the other end of the process?
Should we be handling trash differently at the dump?
I think this is social engineering. I think it's up to the individual to determine whether they want to use
reuseable bags or not. In my mind, this is the same as mandatory recycling.
My biggest concern is for how low-income customers would be affected. What will the fee be? How would
their income be verified for the fee to be waived? Unless they are paying with a food assistance EBT card,
this sounds time consuming and possibly embarrassing. Could there be something added to customer
loyalty card accounts so that when the customer swipes their loyalty card, the bag fee is removed? For
stores without customer cards what alternative could be used (a barcode sent out by text to the customer's
phone, coupons, a different barcoded card)?
Please get input from different low-income populations before making decisions (including diverse
populations, not just white folx). Reach out to organizations who are already working with these populations
as well. I'm sure this survey isn't the only way you will be connecting input but I worry that the input given
here will reflect a more affluent perspective.
lets get rid of straws too, and see what we can do about non compostable packaging in fast and quick food.
until this pandemic is over, no plastic bag initiative should be put into place as grocers do not want to touch
shoppers reusable bags AND they don't appreciate when a shopper brings their own reusable bags and
bags their own groceries. The grocery store lines and long already due to the pandemic, social distancing
and horde purchasing, and if shoppers had to bring their own bags for groceries or else be charged there
would be ALOT longer lines! Please rethink the plastic bag initiative (at least the fee part) until after the
pandemic is past us. thanks!
I am disappointed to see the city council trying to pass this yet again. We have already voted this measure
down. Stop!
Thank you for bringing this policy proposal back into consideration.
Let's do this! :)
Using funds to distribute reusable bags to the community, especially low income homes, would be ideal.
I also support encouraging grocers to NOT wrap their produce in plastic.
Most people have a trunk full of reusable bags that they simply are not using - be it from lack of care, no
incentive, or just forgettfulness. The minute the fee is there, people will have an easier time remembering ;)
This will be next to no burden on anyone, but have a huge environmental impact for the better.
A plastic bag ban is so needed. We are late on this if you ask me. I have been using cloth bags for years
now. It is not hard.
Most people might have too many cloth bags at home. People can find them at thrift stores if price is an
issue.
No more excuses !
Thank you !
We have been down this road before and the community was adamant they did not want a fee on bags.
This should have been done years ago.
I think this is a very complicated issue. Given how light they are, are plastic bags worse for energy
resources used than paper bags? Not per weight, but per use. Or is it that they cause other environmental
problems that paper bags don't. What about reusable bags? I've heard they carry contaminants and need
to be washed, and I've heard they must be reused 100 or so times before the energy savings makes them
better than disposable bags. I just don't want to rush into something because it sounds great without a
thorough analysis of the energy and pollution tradeoffs. And, low income people shouldn't have to pay a
fee.
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BS. There are better ways to solve problems than superficial BS banning. The solution is worse than the
problem. Educate, inspire, influence.
Providing reusable bags to people in need, particularly those already accessing programs like WIC or food
stamps through collaborations with the county can greatly diminish the impact to persons in need. Plastic
bag bans are beneficial to the community and important, but other measures including more widely and
publicly available thin film plastic recycling and enforcing restrictions on commercial use of thin film and
Styrofoam packaging materials will greatly impact those waste areas
The sooner the better!
Use money to provide cloth bags to those that need them and put reminders around town. Thank you!
Please consider adding a Styrofoam ban to this! Thank you for thinking of the environmental crises we are
in.
Please stop trying to model our community based on others that do similar. If so PLEASE go spend time in
those communities and ask yourself if you would ever want to truly live there. It is why I moved here and
away from”there”
Why are we waiting until May 2022 to do what other green cities have been doing for years.
Do not allow anything that is not recyclable to be used! This includes all carry out packages!
Great!
I do not support this because we re-use our grocery bags and not having them will force us to buy new
bags which means the creation of more plastic – it is merely trading one for the other. We re-use our bags
to line trash cans, pick up dog poop, carry library books, sack lunches, and other things. If we don’t have
bags to re-use we will have to buy trash can liners and dog poop bags, etc.
At this time of Covid-19, many people are re-using grocery sacks to dispose of possibly contaminated items
more sanitarily. Without them we would be buying new bags. At this time of Covid-19, plastic bags are
more sanitary in the store than having many peoples’ dirty cloth bags put up on the counters.
Unfortunately, during the pandemic it is unsafe for many people to bring the bags to a recycle place so
many are being put in the trash. When the pandemic is over, more bags will be recycled. If there would be
a ban started, if should be after Covid.
I have seen a problem at the recycling center that causes bags to fly away. Too often there is simply no
room for the bags in the container and so they are left on the side and blow away. We need to fix the
system so it is easier to recycle and things can be left securely inside a large enough container that will
prevent them from blowing away. As we have seen with other recycling, people will recycle if they are
given an easy system.
The only ones who benefit from this are the stores who will make money selling the bags and the city which
will get the other 50%. The burden will fall to the people – we will have to pay for bags one way or the
other. Perhaps the stores should be required to sell biodegradable bags or compostable bags.
Better recycling
In Ireland this has been around since 2002, and works very well. Even low income people were not
opposed to it (I was one). People started to remember their bags very quickly. Also the plastic pollution
dropped off drastically. The tax started at 15c and is now 22c for a bag. It was only a big deal for a very
short time and now people can’t imagine getting a plastic bag in a shop. I don’t see it as an issue for low
income people, everyone has bags. It is a huge cost to the environment. Lots of shops there gave out
reusable carrier bags when it started (you can still buy decent reusable bags in most stores for €1). It was
good advertising for stores when it started. Most people have these bags here too. Why wait until May of
2022?
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It should be up to people to choose. Not forced on us. Use the $ you are putting in to pushing for the ban
and educate people to make a choice of there own. It is not the gov responsibility to force its people to do
such a stupid thing as a plastic ban.
This is not California or Boulder. Please take these stupid ideas back to whichever of these you came
from. I've lived in Fort Collins 40 years. My wife has lived here 56 years. We are seriously considering
moving away because the ideas brought forward by the young and stupid transplants are assinine. This is
unnecessary. If you think this is important, your life has been too short to realize what is really important.
Knock it off!
The city of Fort Collins is already too expensive to live in. You will only be adding extra expenses and
restrictions to people already struggling
I do no support a ban on any bags at all
Can this not be implemented quicker? It’s long over due. I would rather seen low income folks be offered
free reusable bags, but I’m also not low income and don’t have that perspective.
I am old enough to remember when we had to get rid of paper bags because it was destroying the forests.
The plastic does recycle. The current sorting machines plug up with them. Fix the damn processing
method.
I strongly support this measure (and have supported it for years) because it will positively impact our
environment and is easy to adjust to. I made the switch to re-usable bags years ago. Within a few weeks
and a few new practices in place (like hanging our bags on a hook in the garage near our car) it became
part of our lifestyle. If we are out and about and forget a bag, we ask to reload the items in the cart, put
them in our car and load them into the forgotten bags when we get home for ease of carrying into the
kitchen. For those who complain about having to now buy plastic trash bags, that is just a necessary cost
of producing trash and should be shouldered by each consumer.
Please catch up with the times and take aggressive action to reduce plastics pollution. Please also mitigate
negative impacts on low-income households by providing free or subsidized reusable bags to those
households.
Thank you for addressing the issue of plastic waste. I constantly "talk trash" about how bad plastics are, but
still find myself using them all the time because they are so ubiquitous. This is a bigger problem than
personal choice. I'm handed so many plastic bags, containers, and plastic utensils that I either do not need
at all, or use for about 5 minutes. I then I have to store them and bring them to the recycling center (where
the plastics might be repurposed, but are still plastic in our environment), or I throw them away and they
take 500 years to degrade - causing who knows what damage to plants, animals, rivers, oceans, drinking
water, and human life in the meantime. Businesses will reduce the distribution of plastic when there's
financial repercussions. I fully support this ordinance.
I could understand this kind of policy if there wasn't a way to both reuse and recycle bags. I direct a food
pantry in town where we reuse these bags to give items to the clients. The clients then reuse plastic bags in
all kinds of ways on a daily basis which is one of the reason we utilize plastic grocery bags.
Also, "low-income households" have so much to deal with applying for basic necessities that to ask them to
have yet another program to apply to or to consider doesn't make sense. The Murphy Center was created
to streamline the application process and there aren't enough staff to meet the demand as it is
The fact that we are answering this question "Annual reporting on disproportionate impacts of the policy on
low-income households and other historically underrepresented groups" demonstrates the fact that there is
a high probability this will indeed be true.
Fort Collins should not have policies like this so there is NO discrimination against those who can't afford
this kind of policy, particularly at a time when many people are impacted by "Covid-19".
Thank you for considering my input.
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How would this effect both take out and veggies? While I support the paper bags at grocery stores, putting
unbagged veggies (like a head of lettuce) in them does not work.
In terms of take out, plastic bags have saved me from many curry spills in the car.
Instead of a low income pass, could everyone in the city be provided with reusable bags? If a fee is
charged for paper bags, it could go towards funding this. Free replacement bags for low income?
I am very excited about Fort Collins taking action on plastic pollution. If anything, I would like to see
additional action to reduce single use plastics in other situations (e.g., takeout containers and silverware,
straws, plastic water bottles, etc)
In the past, grocers provided paper bags at no cost, so I do not support a paper bag fee.
Just make sure that you don't make things more expensive for low-income individuals and families. And,
frame the roll-out as a positive idea, not a government mandate or people will freak out.
I am very pleased to see this issue under consideration, it is very important to me. The health and balance
of our environment is directly tied to the health of our community's citizens. There will be concern about a
bag fee, which is understandable as many citizens struggle with finances, however we as a community can
not allow the co tinued compromise of health for the sake of convenience. There are many organizations
that give away free reusable bags; will a listing of those organizations be made available? Can a network of
free reusable bags providers be offered to low income citizens to help with the transitions? Could a pay it
forward style program with business be created, where a shopper could donate and that would cover the
paper bag fee for a low income citizen or someone else? Thank you for tackling this important and
complicated issue.
I'd also support a program to provide low-income households with re-usable bags.
I support the ban of plastic but not the fee on paper. Your survey doesn't allow appropriate answers for
those with a similar perspective
The community would benefit for this to be for all grocers, not just large grocers. Additionally why wait till
May 2022, if approved this could be rolled out in 2021 with enforcement starting 2022. Will there be a
phase 2 that focuses on box stores?
Long overdue.
A plastic bag ban is a great thing for the environment, but should not be a hardship for low-income persons,
nor a burden from an administrative perspective for retailers.
Fort Collins should not impose a ban on single-use plastic bags.
The burden of such a ban would fall disproportionately on poor and lower middle-class residents. Upper
middle-class people can keep a stash of bags in the trunk of their car for convenient use, however, that is
not an option for people who use public transport. Thus, it isn’t fair from a social-justice perspective and
would result in an extra expense for those who can least afford it.
From an environmental perspective, single-use plastic bags are not as bad as many alternatives when
factors beyond litter are taken into consideration. Single-use plastic scores better than alternatives when
accounting for factors such as the impact of manufacturing on climate change, ozone depletion, water use,
air pollution, and human toxicity. The Denmark Environment Ministry has studied the trade-offs and plastic
comes out on top for almost all environmental concerns (see article: https://qz.com/1585027/when-it-
comes-to-climate-change-cotton-totes-might-be-worse-than-plastic/ or detailed study results:
https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf).
Some kind of tax credit for businesses that comply early
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PREVIOUSLY RECEIVED RESPONSES:
Open Ended Question: What other thoughts do you have on the proposed policy?
Responses received before 12.29.2020 and included in previous memos / materials sent to Council.
I think plastic bags should be banned everywhere and not just the large stores. If there is a need for reusable bags for
low-income people, stores and businesses can donate some bags. For example, the Market Days program for seniors
has sturdy reusable bags provided every shopping week with various logos on them.
How does this proposed policy affect the disabled community? Carrying groceries in paper bags is much more difficult
and will also require many more trips from the car to the home as an example.
Why is this currently a City priority in the midst of a pandemic, especially considering reusable bags are currently not
allowed to be used and grocery stores.
What problem is the City truly trying to solve, or is this just an effort to keep up with the likes of Boulder and
California?
What does gender, sexual orientation, education, race, income and other questions have to do with a policy
discussion about the what type of bags should be allowed at grocery and other retail stores?
City leadership should thoroughly vet the potential unintentional consequences that will result from a ban on plastic
grocery bags and be conscious of the "tone-deaf" message this type of ordinance sends during COVID and ask
themselves what problem are we trying to solve?
Since it is only large grocery stores affected, I think they should be able to implement it more quickly than May of
2022.
If this ballot measure passes and prior to implementation, a baseline of existing sales should be established and then
annual reporting should include whether there is an increase/decrease in sales across the city by grocery stores,
department stores like Target and Walmart, etc. of small waste can liners (3 to 4 gallon size) to supplant the needs of
consumers that still require plastic bags for purposes that cannot be satisfied by reusable shopping bags. Such uses
include cat litter box clean-out, residential kitchen and bathroom wet trash disposal, dog waste, etc.
National Public Radio ran a story on this very issue and their report identified research indicating that more plastic is
consumed in communities that ban plastic bags and that the carbon footprint and impact to the environment caused
in the production of reusable shopping bags is greater than when communities don't force bans on plastic shopping
bags. Don't take my word for it, listen to the story yourselves....
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/08/721542495/the-problem-with-banning-plastic-bags
If the City truly was data driven and a leader in this realm, it would not be plodding down the path to ban plastic bags
without first exploring this higher possible consumption of plastics and using such data in its decision making. This
feels much like a need to "check a box" so that the city can say it is in a special club alongside the communities that
have already done it...like keeping up with the Jones', rather than actually making a data-driven decision about its
climate future. Perception seems to be a higher priority than reality.
If someone cannot afford reusable bags, to take to the store, maybe a business in town or one of the Clubs, like
Rotary, might take this on as a project.
It takes some change in habits, but it is really quite easy to bring your own bags and stop using plastic. Education is
key.
If you ban plastic bags,You CAN NOT charge for paper bags. Government OVER REACH!!!!!
I think the time spent on determining impacts to low-income households could be better spent on programs that have
a positive impact on these groups. I would start with 1 type of plastic bag (standard grocery) and then expand in the
future.
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You are going after the grocers for plastic bags and mentioned restaurants with plastic utensils and straws. But I don't
see mention of banning restaurant items or charging extra. If you go after the restaurants, you should also include
Styrofoam food/drink containers. Cardboard is much more environmentally friendly.
A ban is the only solution. The problem starts at the cash register. But maybe support for free reusable bags for low
income customers is wiser than an exemption on plastics. Don't brand those bags as clearly "poor people bags." Build
a subsidized campaign in which merchants can brand their new reusable bags at a lower cost. Get guys like me to buy
them in packs of 5. Reward the eagerly cooperating merchants for reducing their plastic bag use with a financial
incentive. Make it positive for them.
each/every grocery store needs to do their parts ASAP. 90+ % of Whole food shoppers bring their own bags, Sprout
85%, KingSoopers 70%, Safeway 60% and worst is Walmart 0%.
While I strongly oppose the use of single-use plastic shopping bags, bringing this proposition forward in the middle of
a pandemic when stores will not allow the use of reusable bags is extremely poor timing. Also, it is folly to propose
banning single-use plastic bags and propose a fee for paper bags at the same time.
Due to the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in customers using grocery store curbside pickups and only
plastic bags are used by most grocers. The City should consider if the ban will change the type of bags grocery stores
will continue to use for curbside pickup and how that will add to the cost of the customer's bill. Grocers will need to
train their employees to consolidate groceries in fewer bags as they have a habit of putting 1-2 items in a bag.
I realize that right now the market for recycled products is not there, making it hard to encourage recycling. And the
rules for what can and cannot be recycled makes it difficult for citizens to follow those rules. Plastics manufacturers
have increased the reusable/recyclable potential for their products. I would encourage an educational approach: how
can we creatively reuse plastics? I am strongly opposed to yet another government intervention that I am sure is
believed to be for our own good. Our taxes continue to go up, the cost of goods sold increases. Do we really want to
add one more fine to our lives? Will this actually make Fort Collins the city of choice to live in?
This is absolutely ridiculous social engineering. It is not aligned with values of a free society.
Free choice and market will eliminate plastics IF it benefits us, not a small group imposing their socialistic values on
the rest of us. We don't want dictates from bureaucrats, nor misery like in California. Stop the nonsense.
I've lived in places with a plastic bag ban. You get used to it. It's probably a good policy in the long run. However,
Fort Collins is a nice place to live because people aren't as "strident" and "condemning". People here are "nice"
liberals, not mean ones (as they tend to be in Oregon, where I lived for a while.) It's always a good idea to be kind and
gentle about ideas like this, and not self-righteous and condemning.
Please implement this ban. It it well past the time when this should have been done.
I love this idea, and I think it should be expanded past plastic bags and grocers. It should also be extended to
restaurants and places that regularly provide consumers with single use plastics without giving them another option. I
would love to see plastic utensils and to go containers disappear, as those are just as harmful it the environment.
I fully support banning plastic bags. Paper bags, however, are less harmful to the environment. If a fee for paper bags
is enacted, I would like to see low-cost ways for households to obtain reusable bags. Perhaps the city can even give
grocers/other retail a subsidy to provide reusable bags at the beginning of the program to its customers.
In other countries, I have lived in, the business also provides plastic bags but customers have to pay for them. I would
also suggest the business provide reusable bags for sale. People will complain at first but will get used to the change
rather quickly.
I think the most important component of any new policy is education particularly trying to get shoppers to rethink
how any product is transported from a store to their home in a matter of a short time- you do not need so many
plastic bags to do this. We need a cultural shift so it becomes automatic like putting on seat belts that we always use
reusable bags. It's not that hard, but we need to make this happen. Thanks for presenting this most important issue.
This is my second survey. I changed my mind because I don't think targeting grocers is fair or fosters competition.
What about the big box stores who are also selling groceries? It appears that they are already taking business from
the major grocers. This just helps them and reduces our options as consumers. Also, a big concern is if stores just use
multi-use plastic (thicker bags) to get around the ordinance. Then that add more plastic pollution. I strongly support
good legislation to reduce plastic. It needs to be smart and fair.
An overall ban should not be enacted.
Rather education and education so that the consumer is drawn to reusable bags.
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I currently will try to use reusable bags but sometimes forget to grab them. I do not want to be penalized for the
occasional slip up.
Implement incentives to encourage people to use reusable bags, instead of forcing penalties on people.
If the store keeps part of the fee they should be required to give one free reuseable bag for every 50 dollars to 100
dollars of an order. Why stop at single use bags? What about plastic cups, straws, and single use self-serve and hot
food containers?
I'm strongly in favor of this ordinance. Aside from the effect this may have on other local municipalities that may
consider a similar policy, it will have a direct impact on local trash collection be extending the life of our landfill.
The only reason that I don't support implementing a plastic bag ban in May 2022 is that that date is too far away. I'm
already astonished that we're only having this conversation in Fort Collins now, in 2020. (Every other place in which
I've lived in the past few years has already made this move.) I think that this policy needs to be implemented the day
before as soon as possible.
I am strongly against all of the above options. We live in a free society, if someone doesn't want bags then they are
free not to use them and charging for them doesn't reduce their use its just another tax disguised as something else.
Thank you
Reusable bags spread germs. Banning one-time use bags when, thanks to COVID, we aren't even allowed to use our
own bags seems very short-sighted.
Bad time with COVID-19, equity impacts ignored, small thinking (it really ignores the single bag usage), “me too” is not
leading, would favor circular economic approach
During this time of unprecedented pandemic and the impact it has had in businesses and citizens this has to be a very
poor decision by 5 of the city council members.
In fact, they are so out of touch with the real world it is extremely disappointing. Also , have they even considered
citizens bringing in their own bags that might be contaminated with potential COVID exposure. Also, how would that
work with citizens picking up groceries that are delivered to their car.
This is the wrong time to even consider this and citizens have told them before that this fee was not wanted or
needed.
Government has already done everything to hurt business and people. Just another blow to individuals. If you don’t
believe in plastic. Don’t use it!!
I have reusable bags. Several. I don't use them due to convenience. I am also cheap, so if I had to pay to use a paper
bag, my reusable bags would become far more convenient and my behavior would change. I doubt I am alone in this
thinking. But why wait until 2022?
Many of us recycle or reuse plastic bags for summer food markets, pet waste, and various other projects....you need
to research this more.
I will shop outside Fort Collins if this occurs.
Thank you for doing this.
I feel we need to advocate at the State level to change the ‘ban on bans’ of single use plastics as well.
I don’t think municipalities can enact bans on plastics at the moment. I believe the only thing possible is to enact such
a large tax (with provisions for low income to get reusable bags) that no one will want to pay it and will find more
sustainable ways to transport their items.
A really large fee like 1.00-2.00. The point is not to collect the fee but to stop the use of disposable bags.
Also needed at the State level-ban on use of polystyrene take out containers. reps singer and Hooton have expressed
interest.
utilize the fees to offer reusable bags free of charge to low-income households
I think this is a great step in the right direction towards reducing the use of single-use plastics in our community. The
reduction of single-use plastics is a great way to reduce our community's environmental footprint. Plastic bag bans or
fees have been introduced elsewhere (including other Colorado communities, Breckenridge for example) with
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success, so I do believe its as good a time as any to start taking active measures to reduce our community's
environmental impact.
Thank you for proposing the ban on plastic bags, and a few on paper bags. People will adapt quickly to bringing their
own bags; many do this already. Eliminating plastic bags has already been done in many countries, and several cities
in the USA. If not for industry lobbyists, this would have been done years ago.
Just do it. Along with Styrofoam. Painful at fiest and quickly forgotten .
The policy as proposed will cause a direct increase in purchase of additional plastic bags for a variety of purposes
currently addressed by re-purposing both plastic and paper bags. Plastic bags not re-purposed are often re-cycled
through the city required sites at grocery stores. Additional education could increase this dramatically.
Lumping fines for paper bag into a Plastics Policy makes zero sense as they represent none of the problems dictated in
the above policy. Any reference to paper bags should be removed.
I support implementing this sooner than May 2022. I also support expanding beyond 'large grocers' to include most, if
not all, businesses.
How about just educating consumers instead of treating them like children.
Plastic doesn't pollute, people do. Stop it with these stupid policies.
People and businesses are already struggling and you want to throw this policy at then as well.
Stop with these policies that don't have a real positive impact.
I love the idea of a plastic bag ban but am uncertain about also imposing a fee on paper bags. I think including this will
make more members not want to vote for this and we need to think of the greater good, as well as affordability and
accessibility. How would you even go about low income folks being exempt? Seems unnecessary to add that fee.
People want to see plastic bags go. I do, and know many others who do too. I think the best solution is to mandate
grocers to stop using them, and just use paper bags instead. Many grocers already offer discounts when you bring
your own bags - that would be something I'd love to see the city cover through tax revenues, rather than charging
fines and paper bag fees. Cover discount incentives for those who bring their own bags. Positive reinforcement :)
This policy seems excellent to me. I strongly support a plastic bag ban!
This is great that the city is trying to take action as the convenience does not out weigh the cost of non reusable bags.
I also am glad that the city is trying to take into account low income member in our community who need to be taken
into account so they are not disenfranchised by this ban.
There will be painful transition period but once individuals are properly trained to bring their own bags we will all be
the better for it. Plastic, “disposable” bags are just lazy and irresponsible.
Do not charge a fee for paper bags. They are recyclable. Just ban the plastic. I would vote no if you charge a fee for
paper. Why should paper users have to pay for plastic violators? That's ridiculous. The grocers do not need paper
bag fee. KS switched to plastic only in NOCO. There was no single, no info provided. Grocers have been selling and
giving away reusable bags for years now. Why would you pay them to do what they already do??
Do you not have better things that you could be spending your time on? We have been here before with the plastic
bag issue!!!! ENOUGH ALREADY!!! Stop wasting our money on this. We like our plastic bags and plastic straws!!!
Someone there has a plastic umm...well, issue!!!
If the city is concerned about single use plastics, the right move is not to ban them, but to provide an alternative to
stores and shoppers free of charge. This idea, from start to finish is awful.
Please double these comments, as my husband and I discussed the survey and agree. He add that there is a floating
heap of plastic in the ocean the size of the state of Texas. We can't continue our present practices, and yes, change is
painful, but it is necessary.
How about just educating rather than dictating.
This question was already answered when voters repealed the previous bag tax. Please stop. Next time we will be
recalling council members who do not respect the will of the people as well.
I have been very concerned about this issue for a long time. The sooner this can be put into effect the better. I am low
income and I have my own bags which I use the majority of the time. I do forget sometimes, though. I am all for
including any and all single use plastics! I can't state my support strongly enough!
Wish to thank the City Council for its progressive stand on this and other issues while continuing to evaluate how their
actions impact low income people.
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This is just another nanny law, expanding government. This is going in the wrong direction.
I feel that this is a long overdue policy. I continue to be surprised how many people leave a grocery store with plastic
bags, when it is so easy to use a reusable bag, which we have been doing for 30 years.
I believe low-income customers should be given reusable bags. It is their responsibility to bring those said bags when
going shopping. If they do not, then they should be fined as everyone else. It is not that difficult to bring and use
reusable bags. Personal responsibility for the environment is everyone's job. It is truly unfortunate that we need an
ordinance to make people accountable for protecting the environment.
This idea has already been voted down by the people. Are we to assume you know what's better for the people than
the people themselves?
I agree that I would not want a policy like this to affect low-income people, but reusable bags are so inexpensive that
it seems to me, rather than exempting them from the bag fee, a better option would be to give each family on public
assistance a certain number of reusable bags. That way, they would be able to be in compliance with the policy, and
there would not have to be a special exemption for them. In a way, I think giving them a certain number of reusable
bags would allow them to feel less singled out, and more a part of the community of caring people who are trying to
reduce single use items of every kind (plastic bags AND paper bags.)
I commend city council for taking concrete steps towards environment protection!
Plastic bags should have been banned a long time ago.. they breakdown and get into our soil, air and water..and many
of those particles make it to our oceans as well all the way from Colorado. I hope it’s on the ballot and it passes.
If we open our restaurants there will be less use of single use plastics because of less take out orders. Often grocery
store clerks do not optimize the use of each bag, maybe start with educating clerks to use less bags and be more
efficient. Instead of banning bags and charging us if we forget to bring our own bags why don't we focus on positive
enforcement? So if you bring your own bag you get a bag discount? People react better to positive enforcement
instead of negative.
Aren't the cost of the bags already included in each grocery store purchase? Adding an additional charge on the
consumer for using a bag does not solve the problem. Why not focus efforts into solving the problem instead of
punishing the consumer? Fort Collins should look into alternative bag materials. One could argue canvas bags use
more resources to produce; energy, water, harmful dyes, emissions to ship the heavier product... Be different than
Boulder and California. Let's find a better solution instead of taking the easy route.
Really dumb idea. People do not need to be told what bags they can and cannot use. Reusable bags not sanitary
I do not support the ban or fees. In many communities the number of purchased single use bags goes up after a ban
or limit. We should work to further recycle the bags if we are trying to keep them out of the landfill. I will not
support any regulation of them.
How about a ban on selling anything that is in those clamshell plastic boxes that aren't recycleable.
ban the plastics, they are the problem. I disagree with a fee on paper. Just encourage people to use their own bags.
Monitoring and reviewing and penalizing retailers is going to cause division, resentment, and cost a lot of taxpayer
money. Work towards voluntary cooperation without unnecessary spending.
Please do this. Offer discounted packable light weight reusable bags from recycled plastics
It is imperative that a community as fine as FC and Larimer Co adopt and adhere to stringent environmental
restoration and protection policies.
It's time for FC to embrace this proposal
Just do it! Climate change is decimating our air, land & water.
Banning single-use plastics is a WONDERFUL idea! Anyone can bring a bag with them, rich or poor. It's just a matter of
getting used to it. I've been doing it for many years, and it's no problem at all!
I'd also like to see those wasteful and polluting single-use water bottles, plastic clamshells (the kind salads come in),
plastic take-out containers, etc. banned. I'm old enough to remember when takeout came in paper containers. Let it
be so again!
Thank you for pressing this important issue!
I believe that banning plastic and paper bags in grocery stores is essential! It Should be done before 2022!! stop the
use of plastic and paper bags now! The climate requires it!
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I dislike trash like everyone, but I also try to look at things from a practical perspective. Foremost, the single use
plastic bag is dying a natural death in the first place. Many stores, prominently King Soopers, our local Kroger affiliate
has already announced it is phasing out these bags. Others will follow. Other studies have shown paper bags are
arguably nearly equally harmful overall to the environment. From the Coloradoan article: "The city isn't considering
the bag fee as a revenue-driver. Money from bag fees is typically used to cover administrative costs of the program,
including compliance monitoring and providing people with reusable bags." While I am sure a few reusable bags are
given out from programs like this, I am quite certain it is an infinitesimally small number or percent of bags used
overall. This falls in line with the concept that government officials have never met a spending program they did not
like. Creating a program to create a fee or tax to cover the cost of the program for a problem that is vanishing already
makes no sense. The Most annoying of the reasoning for the program is math itself. Also from the article, plastic
trash is 10% of trash overall Within that, 17% of the plastic trash is single use bags. So overall, these bags makeup
1.7% of the trash. The numbers as presented, I am skeptical of, but for this discussion I will use. By 2022 when this
may come into effect, the single use bags will be nearly extinct, so even less by then. I am sure there are other
pollution problems that can be addressed at much lower cost for much more impact and much less divisive after
everything we have all gone through for the last year. I hate trash like everyone else. But I also hate wasting money.
There are good and even great government programs. This would not be one of them.
My only support responses were to be considered if this oppressive ban takes place. This plastic and paper waste
makes up a ridiculously small portion of our waste stream and contributes such a tiny amount to GHG. No thanks
That this is just another way for the city council to look like they care when this is just a money grab.
Finally! Start here and do more, like all retail.
This has been needed for a long time. I am hopeful that the City of Fort Collins can finally get this approved and push
forward where other progressive cities have been for years if not decades. Moving away from plastic bags is an
inconvenience, but it is not hard. Collectively we can do this and do our part to reduce the great plastic invasion of
our cities, neighborhoods, and even our bodies. Thanks to our city council for leading the charge for our community
with this important work.
We are somewhat in support of doing something to limit or reduce the proliferation of disposable plastic bags, but do
not support the reusable cloth bags. If paper bags can be properly recycled, that would be our preference.
Really? Don't like using plastic bags? Don't, bring your own!!
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/721542495 Here is a nine minute NPR story on how a plastic ban is actually worse
for the environment than the alternatives.
Instead of a punitive consequence for businesses not in compliance as the change occurs, is there a way to flip it to a
reward for compliance? What about providing COFC reusable bags to low income families to use?
Major cities have implement similar policies and it works It's 2020 and it is strange that we can't move past single use
plastics, especially plastic bags. I previously lived in a city that implemented a bag tax and plastic ban and it was tough
to remember to bring your own bag for like 2 weeks, and then you just get used to it. Fully support this and ways that
the city can help low-income households or less profitable businesses make the adjustments more smoothly.
I do not support this policy. This policy does not address increased costs for EVERYONE in Fort Collins. I am unaware of
a study that says plastics is a serious issue in Fort Collins. The logic of 'everyone else is doing it' is not a basis for
passing new laws. Lastly, the policies described in this survey clearly indicate a new bureaucracies being created (e.g.
auditing business and studying low income impacts) adding bloat to the city government and diluting resources from
other much needed priorities such as economic recovery from COVID-19.
yes and please do not listen to any excuses as to why any person who can get to a store to buy something, can't bring
their own bag if they need one. period. thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What public outreach and education is planned?
What is recommended in place of the bags previously offered by stores?
hard to do with Covid in play so 2022 is ok
A plastic bag fee would be better than a ban for a variety of reasons, including that studies show it works better,
especially if implemented BEFORE a ban. A more comprehensive program with fees for other items would be best,
and then it would make sense to look at impacts on low-income households. Reusables could be subsidized by the
fees to offset those impacts. FoCo is part of the global issue of a plastic pandemic. We can do more than a bag ban!
Based on the above questions, this policy is all but approved.
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I think it would be ideal if low-income households were provided with reusable bags at no cost as well - to mitigate
cost impacts.
Right now, with covid, customers are discouraged from using their own bags. If a similar situation occurs, when using
bags from stores are required, the fees should not apply.
I'm concerned that enforcement is going to be very difficult, and overtime the policy will diminish... In other Cities I
have lived with fees for plastic bags or bag credits if someone provided a reusable bag - the cashier was not well
trained and did not follow the local requirements. for example $.05 fee or credit doesn't really matter as a part of the
larger grocery bill and so often it was not applied to the order. I would like more details on how enforcement will
ensure compliance and add elements of transparency for shaming those who do not follow suit. before i vote, I'd like
more details on implementation and follow through. also, why not include restaurants? if I could count how many
times i asked for no silverware/cutlery and still received it with my delivery, I'd run out of fingers and toes real fast. if
restaurants are hurting for money as the result of COVID disruptions, why not focus on their own food waste and
wasteful use of disposable cutlery, rather than tax breaks to do more of the same? if this is a BIG Move as a part of
Our Climate Future, I'm not understanding how this is so "BIG" and transformational....?
Support and resources to provide low-income people with reusable bags and other solutions.
reusable bags are for all regardless of income - and not all reusable bags are free of plastic - so push cotton or cotton
blend bags that can be washed and reused many many times - some of my cloth bags are over 15 years old - canvas
lasts!!!
As much as I hate plastic and use reusable bags as much as I can, I think it would make more sense to have a fee for
both plastic and paper. I don't understand why that wasn't an option in this survey. Nor was there a reusable-only
option. The survey basically seems to be assessing how I'm going to vote in April and not what do I really want to see
as a local resident regarding this issue. :-P
Things cost too much the way it is. Way put a burden on us even more. You people are trying to follow in Boulder's
footsteps. We don't make their kind of money. You will just drive good people out on Colorado.
Have non-plastic bags at every register for purchase. Do not use the larger, heavier plastic bags as found in California.
That just exacerbates the issue.
Make it super easy for low income not to have to pay the fee without being embarrassed. Making it super easy may
mean that some (I don't believe many in comparison to the total number of people) that wouldn't qualify take
advantage of this but that's acceptable, in my opinion, in order to easily accommodate low income. We should be
sensitive to low income levels.
I'd like to see expansion of what is recycled. One possibility may be that, instead of duplicating in Fort Collins
something as extensive as CHARM in Boulder, that the City of Fort Collins can work out an arrangement with them
where the items are collected here and trucked to them on a weekly basis or some other type of cooperative effort
with nearby communities. I'm far from knowing the numerous details involved in recycling but I'd like to see us get to
a William McDonough "Cradle to Cradle" approach of every waste item either being a natural waste that is recycled or
a technical waste that is recycled. And much of it starts with the inputs so we try to eliminate as much of both that we
can before it's even generated.
Fort Collins should be a leader in reducing and eventually eliminating pollution from all types of plastics—bags, food
containers, single-use items such as straws and stirrers, and micro plastics. These materials are overwhelming our
planet, and micro plastics are being ingested by people and animals. We do not know the extent of the damage that
these tiny plastic particles are inflicting on living things, but we cannot wait to find out. We need to take strong,
decisive action now.
Bring your own bags or pack it out not sacked. Why do we charge for plastic bags. Just do not have them.
What is the difference in cost between paper & plastic to the stores?
It needs to be all merchants not just grocery stores. Kohls, Jax, Walmart all pass out plastic.
It's hard to people, even though they want to, to get into the habit of taking their alternative bags into the grocery
store every time they shop. This ordinance will nudge them to do this. With this incentive, people will develop this
habit and will feel better about themselves and feel they're helping out, doing their bit as responsible citizens. This
positive aspect of the ordinance should be promoted when it's implemented. Thanks, and good luck.
Banning the plastic bags is a good idea. I had been using my reusable bags until Covid. Another issue is recycling all
the other plastic items with chasing arrows. This should be addressed. Our curbside pickup says certain plestic items
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cannot be recycled. It is confusing as to which can be recycled. It pains me to know these items are ending up in the
landfill.
Our lives and planet will be better off without plastic bags. We got along just fine without them 40 years ago.
I wonder how you will be able to deal with low income persons? Would it not be best to GIVE them reusable grocery
bags? Those last for ages. That would make it easier for the grocers, as they don't have to single out anyone for
different treatment. And, if those people don't use the reusables they will have to pay for the paper bags. That way
everyone has to take the responsibility for their actions.
Wish it wasn’t until 2022. Other localities have already implemented
I don't understand how you would implement the exemption for low-income households. It seems onerous and could
lead to weirdness at the grocery store. Better would be a system to give free re-usable bags to low-income
households, e.g., annually. Also, "a portion" is obviously vague. 1%? 55%? So vague to make it impossible to
gauge/answer the question. (That said, I really appreciate that the city is thinking about this - and I appreciate all of
the work the city has done this year.)
This absolutely needs to be done. I am concerned about the implementation for low-income households and am
curious to hear more about it.
You ban plastic bags and then we have to buy plastic bags from the stores to use for garbage and animal waste. You
are not solving any problem at all..instead you are creating a larger problem by cutting more trees down for the paper
bags. Reusable bags do not wash and last. Common sense is lacking.
This is California negative. They ruined their state and are moving here. Positive: make feed bag carriers for groceries
and retail shopping the proud and desired way to shop. Not only do you need to exempt poor but also seniors who do
not carry heavy loads. Get cooperation from trash companies. Campaign not only irresponsible plastic use but fabric
waste from t-shirts and rugs to showers wasting water because they have only one flow rate. Let's talk. Edith Brown
970-232-9209.
Do not do this. This is kind of ridiculous, considering that just as most people were starting to bring their own bags, we
were told not to due to the pandemic, which seemingly set us back several years as far as voluntary
compliance/bringing your own bag. Now that we are "allowed" to bring our own bag again, I see very few people
doing it. Rather than draconian laws and expensive auditing and enforcement, why don't you run a campaign
reminding people of the benefits and that they CAN bring their own bags, which was banned (for seemingly no reason
as it's since been allowed again).
I would suggest measures to limit waste from other disposable plastics such as take-out food and fast-food
restaurants, in addition to these proposed measures. A large fraction of trash along roadsides consists of fast-food
containers.
I would like to see more policies that encourage resuse in the economy
I also support measures to reduce restaurant/take-out use of single use plastics like bags, plastic containers, drink
containers/lids/straws and plastic silverware. I would love to see the city take action on these sources of plastic waste
as well.
I think it’s a great step. Though I’m sure there will be some resistance it’s a step we do need to take to protect our
environment.
The plastic bins at the recycle center are always full. Suggest they be emptied daily
Find ways to recycle the plastic bsgs
I would like to see the city move faster and go beyond just large grocers more quickly as well. Thank you!
we have to do it eventually, so let's do it now!
Be sure you are able to target our entire community. Those of us answering this questionnaire obviously have access
to this information, but many won't. Please include those most impacted by these proposals, part of making the
solution/policy/enforcement. Thank you
It’s about time! Do it, sooner the better!
Reporting in impacts and litigating penalties may make this more expensive. I think May of 22 is too far away. Can we
phase in? Can we include making plastic utensils and straws on request only? I see no signage about that despite all
the carryout these days. We could do that TODAY!
Citizens are self regulating! No government intervention is needed
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Ban plastic bags, yes. Ban paper bags, no. Do not combine this two issues. They are separate types of materials.
They should be presented to the public as separate issues.
I reuse the plastic bags and recycle my unused newspaper and grocery bags.
Support banning plastic bags, not very clear why the focus on paper bags. Disagree with the differentiation of low
income population. The regulations should cover everyone. Should not be a reason to hire more city staff.
Bring it on! It's overdue.
Some fees could be used to help provide lower income people with reusable bags. The city could also hold an event
where businesses get together to meet new potential customers and network and whatever. But the catch is having
those businesses give away reusable bags. For example, I have several from Comcast.
I'd much rather see a ban on single use plastic and styrofoam food containers for take out along with straws and
plastic cutlery. I think this would have better impact as clamshell and stryrofoam containers cannot be recycled. While
I welcome a cutdown on plastic bags I am concerned about low-income communities.
Plastic carry out bags provided by retailers would seem to comprise a tiny fraction of plastic packaging sold by
retailers. Many of the items that go into those plastic bags are themselves wrapped in plastic. This is unnecessary. Dry
goods can be packaged in biodegradable paper or cellulose. Wet goods can be packaged in glass or metal. These old-
fashioned materials are phased out largely because of consumer aesthetic preferences, but why should we prioritize
that sort of consumer aesthetic preference over environmental considerations?
As former chair of the NRAB I testified before council on 1st & 2nd reading for the plastic bag fee several years ago.
Unfortunately, a small band of activists put pressure on the 2nd reading and the policy was abandoned. I think people
are more aware of the damage plastic does in the environment and the majority are ready to push back on the small
segment that sees this (mistakenly) as a civil liberties issue. I say go for it.
I think this is a great step towards less plastic pollution
Elimination of plastic and paper bags is both simple and vital. Many of us grew up before plastic bags and know that
simply bringing clot bags or other containers is NO PROBLEM once you get used to us. We did it for decades before
plastic!
We also need a ban on other plastic products, such as plastic clamshells used to package bakery items and produce.
We have been led to believe that these items are recyclable when in fact they often are not. This green-washing is
very deceptive and creates consumer confusion.
1) Studies have shown that a plastic bag fee is much more effective than a bag ban, primarily for psychological
reasons. For example: https://econlife.com/2020/02/plastic-bag-bans-and-fees/
2) Paper bags are NOT necessarily a more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bags and need not be
encouraged as such. This is a complex LCA topic, but here is a good article delving into this-
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47027792.
3) The key is public education on bag reuse, to reduce environmental impact. Paper bags take much more energy to
make and transport, the key is to reuse a certain number of times to reduce the life cycle impact. This is even more
true of the canvas or other plastic reusable bags - these need to be reused over a hundred times to breakeven
according to some estimates, but people tend to buy far too many of these but keep forgetting them at home and
buying more new reusable bags, which is counterproductive as it leads to more plastic pollution eventually.
Why wait until 2022 Make it May 2021
The community did not support this when it was proposed last time. When reusable bags were banned under the
guise of public safety during the pandemic, it became obvious that this was never about the health of our community
or environment. In addition, more of the community is utilizing grocery delivery and pickup, which is not addressed by
this policy. This “problem” should be solved with education, not bans and fines.
The ban should begin as voluntary on part of providers and consumers. Many shoppers already brought their own
bags to grocery stores before the pandemic. The pandemic required grocery stores to reject customer provided bags
to reduce suspicion of virus transmission. Many customers will return to bringing their own bags once the covid virus
is under control. It's too soon to impose a plastic ban until observation of plastic reduction can be measured after the
pandemic abates. Even May of 2022 may be too early. Businesses should not be monitored for compliance;
businesses have enough to track without adding the cost of monitoring compliance.
I think grocers should supply paper bags and encourage re-use of them.
No. Just no. This was not popular a few years ago and that was just a fee on plastic bags. Now your purposing a ban
and a fee in paper. No.
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Keep it cost neutral, as far as possible
Keep it simple (KISS principle)
Way too aggressive at this time. I would support a fee for plastic bags but no charge for Paper. Why is it the business
fault? why not put the liability on the consumer. it needs to be their responsibility to supply their own bags.
When the old landfill was viewed as closing city began to look at ways to encourage composting and waste reduction.
Once the new landfill site was acquired the composting and waste reduction initiatives disappeared. As the pandemic
rage(s) plastic use is at an all time high with more items being eliminated from the list of recyclables. Can staff take a
look at a long term approach that will not give our merchants any more issues to deal with. The amount of un
recycled material being shipped to homes via “on line shopping “ is enormous compared to grocery bags. Really?
What’s this going to cost to get on a ballot? Please deal with more important social interests and really focus on your
“triple bottom line”. This initiative apply to none of these and you use an ailing river as the reasoning? Really? Also
your demographic question portion of this only continues to enforce our separation as a society, please be the leaders
that work toward bigger goals!
This is a no brainer and if it occurs, customers will be forced to go along with the change.
Could we encourage more stores to offer used cardboard boxes instead of bags? A la Natural Grocer, Mountain
Market (co-op), Esh's.
Seems that exempting certain customers is reasonable but hard to implement well. Not sure how to address this.
I certainly think that paper bags are better than plastic - so glad you are working on this issue - i get so troubled to see
people still requesting their groceries be bagged in plastic. Wondering how stores Or the City can make reusable bags
available at a reasonable cost to get people on board. I appreciate Natural Grocers system - offering cardboard boxes
to those who don't bring their own bags.
Incentivize people to do the thing that's best for our Environment, rather than penalizing individuals for making their
own choices. Give me a $.01 credit every time I shop and use my own bag. Don't charge me anything for not
complying with your rule.
I feel that eliminating single use plastics is an essential part of our future as a city, so am glad to see the work on this
topic. Because it is a complex issue, I hope that additional thought will be put towards other sources of single-use
plastics. E.g. take-out food, local food packaging, etc. I don’t want to see restaurants any harder hit as they recover
form the pandemic, but considering some support and resources for them to source other types of carry-out
containers would be so helpful. Finally, that paper bag “fee” does seem like a bit of a turn off to the proposal in
general, but I understand that the large grocers might “need” that in order to have a better compliance rate?
Thanks for your consideration of this issue and I look forward to seeing additional solutions and ideas from the city.
In all the questions I only see the words "fee" and "penalty". I think you are looking at this wrong. How about an
"incentive" or "enticement" for grocers and consumers to wean themselves away from plastic bags?
I think everyone realizes that we cant just keep producing and throwing away plastic bags my the millions. But
proposing a solution that only has punitive measures is destined to fail. How about a program that "makes it cool"
not to use plastic bags? How about creating an easy "on ramp" and alternative for people of all income levels?
Taking the approach of "Thou shalt not use plastic bags..." is just begging for non-compliance.
Most other communities have already done this. We need to get on board!
I think these proposals are AMAZING and I really hope the City of Fort Collins helps set the example of how to make
our environment a priority!
Any chance it can happen before May 2022?
Re-usable sturdy shopping bags are a simple solution. The fee on plastic bags can be used to subsidize the cost of re-
usable shopping bags, so they are available in all major shops for a low cost, something like 50 cents.
Thank you so much for considering this. And you addressed my only concern about it...the impact it might have on
low-income households.
I do not like but will live with it and abide by it if implemented
Instead of the ban, are there potential incentives that can be offered to people who do NOT use plastic (ie: bring their
own bags)? Essentially using a carrot instead of a stick... I just worry that there might be more push-back to a ban as
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opposed to an incentive program, but an incentive may not get us to where we want to be in terms of plastic waste
diverted.
I think it’s a great idea to get people to get used to using less and using their own bags. We need to keep moving in
this direction.I don’t think it should be based on income, since the cost can be avoided by bringing your own and using
less. Plastic bottles should be next.
A component of the program should be incentivizing or providing reusable bags. Also plastic garbage bags and
baggies should be banned as well.
It's way past time that a plastic ban is put into effect. If it can't be recycled or made of recycled material it should be
banned.
just ban plastic bags. leave the paper bags alone or charge us $0.10 for them. all people can bring a bag or carry what
they buy. we will learn to shop differently.
I think we have been SO Spoiled and thoughtless in our use of plastic. Possibly, a Strong Impact 'consequence' will get
our attention...especially if there is a strong eduation component vs. a dictatorial approach...(even though my
responses were strong, it wasn't to 'dictate' but more to get people's attention while you/we 'educate' at the same
time.
I don't think you can make a correlation on a bag fee & low income persons. I'd rather have the city offer free bags to
those who need them. I'm disappointed about all the plastic being used during covid- hope we can go back to using
our own bags soon.
Ban the plastic bags please! Not all plastic can be or is recycled and its lightweight nature means that on windy days it
can be carried out of trash and recycling bins and into the environment, including our rivers. Single-use plastics, such
as plastic bags, are widely used and easily break down into pieces too small to remove from the environment. This
should stop.
We have already been using our own reusable bags for groceries until Covid came along and will resume it as soon as
possible.
Make reusable bags cheap or free for some people or for some time prior to the implementation of the plastic bag
ban.
Can't happen soon enough!
No waste of time seeing how people of low income are being impacted; if there is consistent complaints then we
should spend the additional resources on studying the impacts but why create a problem before it exists?
They or anyone can bring a plastic trash bag grocery bag or home made fabric bag that they already have from home
or pre plastic bag ban bags and/or there can be a free bag bin where precious customers bring back their paper bags
or old plastic bags OR CUSTOMERS ARE PROVIDED WITH PACKAGING BOXES THAT GROCERY STORES WOULD DISCARD
OTHERWISE (See Esh’s market in Loveland for example)
The fee part is stopping me from supporting this. I normally use my own reusable bags but covid-19 stopped that so
now I am forced to receive plastic bags which I recycle. This fee will be passed along to consumers and any increase
the business has to incur to purchase paper bags People in this town are already struggling. I agree plastic bags are
bad for the environment. But so are plastic containers 1&5 yet I'm still forced to throw those away because they
aren't being accepted anymore for recycling.
This should have been in place years ago.
Invest in expertise around community based social marketing or other science-driven behavior change models as you
plan toward 2022. It will take more than education and regulations to make this successful. I am a a social scientist in
the conservation field for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and would be happy to discuss further or be on a committee
or team to help with this initiative in any way I can. 970-222-3881 Natalie Sexton
Encourage people to buy reusable bags.
Could start sooner. Ask people to make bags to distribute to low income popupus
Important step!
Educate people on the issues vice legislate the issue. When you start to do some reading on the issue it sounds more
like a waste/recycling management issue. I personally have reusable bags that I will bring to the stores, but at the
same time I keep some plastic bags around and reuse them for trash can liners, shipping items for protection, keeping
my car clean when I go play in the mountains and get dirty. Are we going to be selective about banning plastic bags?
There are ziplock bags, trash bags, bread bags, meat separation bags, fruit and vegetable bags. What about other
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single use plastics? Fruit trays, plastic wraps, plasticware, food trays, etc.? The COVID pandemic has shown some the
importance to single use plastics. It seems like more and more as I go into places, the business that are sustainable
oriented and already taking action themselves and those will be the places in the future that succeed as we educate
the community and businesses. Don't implement policy that is hard and costly to enforce and will cost the poor even
more money out of their pockets.
I'm tired of you guys trying to shove this down our throats every year. This has nothing to do with the environment,
this is just a way to raise fees and line your pockets.
I volunteer to pick up trash and the 2 worst things are plastic bags and plastic bottles,
Bags r bad
I have exchanged correspondence with some members of City Council on this already. Please cf. those emails.
Fair for all use paper only with no fees we pay enough for the products
Please also come up with plan for getting rid of these bags at smaller stores as well.
We need a ban!
Plastic bags are a good starting point, but this should move to other containers that don't need to be plastic: drink
bottles and food jars, styrofoam packing material, plastic retail packaging, etc.
Better messaging to make clear that plastic isn't truly recyclable and that users of plastic bags and packaging are being
subsidized by the rest of the society will help.
I came from CA, where they passed the ban on plastic bags at retailers and put a fee on single use plastic bags
beginning in 2014. Over several years people's behaviors changed to where instead of paying a fee for bags, people
bought reusable bags of many types for use in grocery stores and retail. Reusable bags were often used as giveaways
to promote a store brand. There is also the trend for restaurants not to provide foam or plastic take out containers
but use compostable containers instead. It takes some years to wean people off single use bags, but with CO
growing, it will make a big impact here in time.
Very good thoughts of the city council, and hope it works. In Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, a group of conservation
leaders manged to get the towns to stop all use of not just plastic bags, but also all plastic soda bottles and cups and
eliminated all throw away glass bottles forcing all companies to sell beer and soda glass bottles be reused. The only
one they never could do was eliminating plastic water bottles in markets and shops in Galapagos. And of course USA
was the country that created plastic bottles, cans, bags, etc. Western Europe does it much better than USA manages
such trash and much better efficient recycling.
Long overdue. It's time to get rid of single-use plastics!
Currently some stores in town don't even want you bringing your bags in due to the pandemic. Seems like an odd
time for the City to be dreaming up the next way to impact the citizen's lives. Rather than a ban, I would look at a bag
surcharge. I would also like to see more data on total cost/environmental impact of bagging options. Also not clear is
what will happen with the plastic bags for packing vegetables. Am I to find a solution for this as well? I think the City
should spend more effort painting a realistic picture of what they think a sustainable system looks like and the
advantages it confers rather than just given us the next edict of what we can't do.
NO FEES INVOLVED AT ALL
Would have to make reusable bags available for free.
I think the ban on plastic bags could be part of a larger project to reduce plastic consumption. I would also like to see
the city educating the public on proper recycling and reducing our consumption of plastic. For instance many people
do not know what types of plastic are and are not recyclable so they put all plastics and plastic bags in their recycling.
To reduce our consumption of plastic we need business (especially the large ones in our city: Walmart, Target, King
Soopers) to tell manufactures they won't buy their products with obscene amounts of plastic and packaging are
eliminated or far reduced. The ban on plastic bags in a small dent on what we should be doing to curb our plastic
consumption.
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I strongly oppose any initiatives that implement a regressive end-user fee which will disproportionately impact poor
and working class people in our community (to address a problem that is largely not due to their actions). Instead of
putting the burden of reducing plastic pollution on individuals, I instead support system changes that reduce plastic at
the business level. These could include:
- Enacting an “opt-in” versus “opt-out” policy on single-use plastic utensils for restaurant take-out and delivery
- Ending the use of single-use plastics for dine-in restaurants
- Enacting a business-focused single-use plastics ban similar to Palo Alto’s Disposable Foodware Reduction Plan
- Funding further programs to incentivize consumers to bring their own reusable bags to retail stores
- Funding further programs to incentive the use of compostable foodware
Paper bags are essentially environmentally friendly. They can be burned with little impact and also have more re-uses.
People can donate to tree planting causes to offset the limited resource use. Reusable bags are great and I use them,
but I’d rather see plastics not be used than punishing folks who forget their bag.
Fees should not be considered if they are to fall disproportionately on low-income individuals. If anyone is to be
charged, the costs should fall on the businesses and manufacturers most responsible for the pollution (or at least
those that can most afford it). If this isn't possible practically or politically then fees should not be charged.
Please ban plastic bags and make reusable bags available to low income households.
Plastic grocery bags are still useful for many people in lieu of plastic trash bags (trash can liners, pet waste bags). An
out-right ban may not be the best option-- perhaps still allowing use of plastic bags but charging a fee per bag is a
good compromise, along with encouraging/reminding people to use reusable shopping bags.
Absolutely ban plastic bags! However, I am concerned about the potential impact of a paper bag fee on low income
families. If a fee is instituted with an exception for low income families, how will these customers be identified? If it's
whether they receive a form of food assistance, that won't cover families who do not receive food assistance, but still
would be impacted by the bag fee. Also, there should be a program through the grocery stores to get free reusable
bags into the hands of low income families. If the family qualifies to not pay the paper bag fee, they should receive at
least one reusable bag for each shopping trip for the first month after the policy is put in place.
I would also strongly support marketing with explanations for why the climate emergency is such a pressing issue. For
example, reusable bags can be printed with climate change statistics which effect Fort Collins and surrounding areas.
Many climate change deniers will most likely scoff at these measures because they lack education.
I strongly support a ban on single use plastic bags. I do not support charging for paper bags. I would like to see Fort
Collins become a national leader in plastic recovery.
This would be an amazing move for the city.
The ban on plastic bags needs to be put into action as soon as possible. The sooner it is put into action the sooner the
rivers, reservoirs, and other water sources, as well as natural environments, are free of plastic pollution. The ban
needs to also be expanded to include other single-use plastics such as plastic straws, styrofoam, plastic cutlery, plastic
takeout containers, and more.
Personally I too love the convenience of use-n-toss bags — but we just can’t afford this extravagance anymore.
I'd like to know if question 3(c) above implies that there will be requirements (ordinances) for the grocers to do
training, signage and provide reusable bags? Will those requirements also be audited?
Homelessness, hungry children, crime, depression, poverty. And you are focused on plastic bags. Shame on you.
This last point in the survey on "disproportionate impacts of the policy on low-income households" shows you already
have an inkling that this policy is a bad idea. I 100% support plastic pollution mitigation but doing so on the backs of
Fort Collins' working class people is cruel and unfair. A tax on the wealthiest residents will hurt them the least and
could fund all kinds of programs like a cloth bag campaign, stream cleanups, etc. etc. I would also support an "opt in"
versus "opt out" ordinance when it comes to single use plastic utensils at restaurants.
Although I support a ban on plastic bags, I would prefer a fee instead. Fees allow for people to adjust to the change
and think about their impact
There’s a plastic king scoopers bag in a tree outside of our apartment right now 😐😐
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as a low income individual, I don't even know anyone who throws away plastic bags. I, and most people I know, use
them as garbage bags. They come free with my groceries and the thinner plastic actually creates less plastic pollution
than commercial trash bags. they are also better than paper bags due to the increased cost of transportation per bag
and the processes used to create paper. I strongly oppose a plastic bag ban, but I would like to see more incentives
and opportunities to use reusable bags (discounts, free bags, etc). Plastic bags are a very small part of the issue of
pollution. the fact that this survey asks about the impacts of this ban on low-income households means it's being
aknowledged that this has the potential to disproportionately impact low-income groups. We would need to have
measures in place to fix negative impacts while people have to wait for the results of those studies and changes to be
implemented.
I think a phase in policy would be needed to educate and get support from the community. What will replace current
plastic bags for bulk item purchases like loose vegetables in the grocery stores?
Fees at the point of purchase disproportionately impact those who cannot justify the expense of reusable bags,
unfairly target lower-income individuals, and would be seen as an undesirable tax by many consumers. More
equitable and acceptable policies to reduce pollution from single-use products could include:
- Incentives for reusable bags, designed carefully to avoid the costs of such a measure being shifted onto poor and
working-class individuals (environmental impact of reusable bags themselves should be considered before
implementing these)
- Requiring that businesses ask customers before providing single-use products (opt-in), so products are not provided
to customers who do not need or want them
- Restrictions or incentives on the business side that encourage businesses to use alternative bags, containers,
utensils, etc. that reduce pollution
In a sentance, the burden must be on the corporate groccers and not the consumers.
Ban Plastics
I strongly oppose a regressive end-user fee on plastics which will disproportionately impact poor and working class
people in our community (who are largely not responsible for the plastic pollution this initiative aims to address). I
instead support efforts that more equitably aim to address pollution such as the following:
- Enacting an “opt-in” versus “opt-out” policy on single-use plastic utensils for restaurant take-out and delivery
- Ending the use of single-use plastics for dine-in restaurants
- Enacting a business-focused single-use plastics ban similar to Palo Alto’s Disposable Foodware Reduction Plan
- Funding further programs to incentivize consumers to bring their own reusable bags to retail stores
- Funding further programs to incentive the use of compostable foodware
I think this is an awesome first step.
Considering ANY paper bag fee nullifies the entire concept. I fully understand the arguments and STRONGLY disagree
and will refuse any such policy that includes ANY paper bag fees.
I do not support a fee or ban unless the impact on low income people is mitigated.
I am concerned that bag fees and bans disproportionately affect people with low income and any exemption for low
income people would place a stigma on the use of bags which are often necessary for carrying things.
Rather than charge a fee for paper bags or ban plastic, why not make it more inviting to have people bring their own
bags (paper, plastic or store brands)? Encouragement and incentives go much further than punishments and fees.
I strongly oppose a regressive end-user fee on plastics which will disproportionately impact poor and working class
people in our community (who are largely not responsible for the plastic pollution this initiative aims to address). I
instead support efforts that more equitably aim to address pollution such as the following:
Like an “opt-in” versus “opt-out” policy on single-use plastic utensils for restaurant take-out and delivery or a ban on
plastics for dine-in restaurants, asking consumers to bring their own reusable bags to retail stores.
Low-income households should be given reusable bags rather than having to pay for paper bags.
This is misguided virtue signaling and ends up hurting the poorest populations the most.
I am thinking that the proposed policy needs to be divided into two issues; 1. the banning of plastic bags 2. putting a
fee on paper bags #1 is a no brainer. NO PLASTIC BAGS #2 turns into a very complicated and unfair approach to
solving the problem. The burden of the cost should be assumed by the large grocers, those with the ability to bear
the cost. Many large retail stores give credit to shoppers for bringing their own bags. Just as many home sewers
have responded to the need for masks, bags could be created by sewers with donated fabric.
This is a burden on low income people, you dumb asses
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Prefer implementation earlier than May 2022
Now let’s talk about eliminating air pollution from combustion engines.
I greatly appreciate your willingness to tackle this issue! As a wildlife biologist I have seen first hand the impacts
plastics cause for wildlife, natural areas, and our waterways and feel this is long overdue for a community such as ours
that prides itself on caring for the environment. I would like to see this ban extended well beyond grocers to all
businesses in our community - although grocery stores produce the greatest impact in regards to plastic bags, there
are so many other businesses that need to make this change! I would also ask that the City begin to evaluate
alternatives to all plastic bags and incentive programs to switching to compostable, bio-degradable, or other more
environmentally-friendly bags for trash, etc. If there was a place to upload images, I would share a photo I took
yesterday of a waste disposal site in eastern Colorado where they have erected huge chain-link fences around the
dump that was literally covered with plastic bags. Please let me know what I can do to help! I work with hundreds of
college students dedicated to sustainability and would be happy to share information with them. Thank you again for
addressing this important issue!
Sincerely,
Ann Randall
Banning plastic bags is good, but a paper bag tax is regressive and only impacts the most needy. It's possible to make
progress without creating new problems and making existing ones worse.
all for a cleaner environment, not at the expense of the working class or low income peoples! if there is an exemption
for them, it has to be highly accessible, publicised, and in no way a burden to achieve
I do not support regressive measures that charge the consumer. How about a yearly fee charged to any business using
plastic bags or utensils? How about a city wide internal audit of plastic use within the city systems? How about
providing reusable bags to residents using a property tax on large homes? There are many ways to help without laying
more burden on the working class.
Ban bottled water
Hello. I cannot believe we are waiting for 2022. The city should of already had this issue resolved, but I do appreciate
the survey. We cannot continue to turn our heads on the plastic bag issue. Its time to move forward.
Fee for plastic and paper bags
I support banning single-use plastics/plastic bags, but strongly oppose this regressive fee passed on to the customer.
Seriously, fuck off with that. Individuals are not the main polluters and a fee only harms the poor.
Our local DSA chapter has put together the following proposal, which I wholeheartedly support:
- Enacting an “opt-in” versus “opt-out” policy on single-use plastic utensils for restaurant take-out and delivery
- Ending the use of single-use plastics for dine-in restaurants
- Enacting a business-focused single-use plastics ban similar to Palo Alto’s Disposable Foodware Reduction Plan
- Funding further programs to incentivize consumers to bring their own reusable bags to retail stores
- Funding further programs to incentive the use of compostable foodware
I’m glad to see the City taking action on this issue. We need to reduce the use of plastic bags and if shoppers can’t
bring their own reusable bags, they should have to pay. Boulder, Breckenridge, and many other cities in CO have this
policy. It works!
Fort Collins should be a leader in reducing and eventually eliminating pollution from all types of plastics—bags, food
containers, single-use items such as straws and stirrers, and micro plastics. These materials are overwhelming our
planet, and micro plastics are being ingested by people and animals. We do not know the extent of the damage that
these tiny plastic particles are inflicting on living things, but we cannot wait to find out. We need to take strong,
decisive action now.
Very good. I have doubts regarding the bags that they use for dog poop, that the City distributes in the natural areas. What is going to happen with those? Impossible to remove.
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1Mitigating Plastics Pollution
Jacqueline Kozak Thiel and Molly Saylor
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Questions to Council
1.Do Councilmembers have input regarding the fee per
paper bag at 10 cents,20 cents,or an amount in
between?
2.Do Councilmembers support staff’s recommendations
on key policy and related program details?
2
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STRATEGIC
ALIGNMENT
Environmental Health
•4.4 Zero waste
•4.9 Poudre River health
BUDGET
Midcycle funding
•$35K each for
macroplastics and
microplastics
Plastics Pollution
3
COUNCIL
PRIORITY
Plastics Pollution
•Microplastics
•Macroplastics
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Plastic Pollution Resolution
Resolution directed staff to prepare a bag ordinance with
the following policy elements and logistical considerations:
•Hybrid approach –ban plastic bags, fee on paper
•Large grocers
•Policy details (Staff recommended base case)
•Referendum
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Council Consideration Points
Consideration Point Recommendation
Fee structure 50-50 split between grocer and City
Fee amount Could range from 10-20 cents
Program costs and cost recovery Plastic pollution mitigation and solid
waste reduction
Income-qualified relief Federal, State, County income
qualified aid programs
e.g. WIC and SNAP benefits
2021 resources Fund 2021 ordinance implementation
prep and outreach: $70k-87.5k
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Fee Structure
Staff recommendation: Split fee 50-50 between City and grocer
Context: Local grocer costs to implement ordinance are unclear and
may range from 1 to 10 cents/bag
•By requiring a grocer fee revenue plan
•Understand their costs
•Allow room for innovative ideas
•Flexible over time
Alternatives: Scale grocer share up or down; consider additional
requirements if grocer keeps all or large share
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Fee Amount
•Legal requirement: Establish connection between fee and related
program through fee study
•Bottom line: City costs per bag support either 10 or 20 cents or
an amount in between
•10 cents –Most common for Colorado communities with fee or hybrid
approaches, lower impact on low-and medium income households
•20 cents –Greater behavior change and environmental outcomes
•An amount between 10 and 20 cents
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Staff Recommended Program Elements
Administration of ordinance
Providing reusable bags, education and outreach
Litter and waste reduction and clean-up activities
Programs and infrastructure to reduce waste and increase recycling,
including community-led efforts
Equipment designed to minimize trash and pollution
Equitable outreach and engagement strategies
Other activities related to litter and waste reduction and recycling
8
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9
Cost description Annual cost range (low)(high)
a.Ordinance admin, outreach, engagement $260,000 $300,000
b.Reusable bags, starting with low-and medium-
income $10,000 $30,000
c.Litter related City-costs $100,000 $150,000
d.Plastic and paper recycling costs at TRC $50,000 $100,000
e.Expanded equitable engagement, outreach, and
community partnership $175,000 $300,000
f.Solid waste reduction, recycling, plastic pollution
mitigation efforts $200,000 $500,000
Total Cost $795,000 $1,380,000
Cost per Bag (50% retained by City; 75% reduction in
bags)$0.12 $0.21
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Income Qualified Relief
10
Staff recommendation: Customers with benefit card reflecting
participation in a federal, state, or county income-qualified aid programs,
including:
•Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP)
•Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children
(WIC).
Context:
•Common approach in other cities
•Standardized form of ID
•Low-and medium-income households receive free reusable bags first
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Income Qualified Exemption
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2021 Resources
Staff recommendation: Fund 2021 outreach to prepare for 2022
ordinance
•Free reusable bags for low-and medium-income households
•Outreach and engagement campaign
•New FTE to roll out ordinance
Scalable costs: $70k-87.5k in 2021
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Engagement
13
•Online survey tools for engagement and comments on
ordinance.
•Begin: Mid-December
•End: January 31
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Council Consideration Points
Consideration Point Recommendation
Fee structure 50-50 split between grocer and City
Fee amount Could range from 10-20 cents
Program costs and cost recovery Plastic pollution mitigation and solid
waste reduction
Income-qualified relief Federal, State, County income
qualified aid programs
e.g. WIC and SNAP benefits
2021 resources Fund 2021 ordinance implementation
prep and outreach: $70k-87.5k
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Questions to Council
1.Do Councilmembers have input regarding the fee per paper bag at 10 cents,
20 cents,or an amount in between?
2.Do Councilmembers support staff’s recommendations on key policy and
related program details?
City and grocer each retain 50%of the fee
Fee revenue supports costs of new plastic pollution mitigation and solid waste reduction
program
Income-qualified exemption for WIC and SNAP benefit recipients
Provide resources to support the program before ordinance implementation
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Back-up Slides
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DocuSign Envelope ID: 7E061FEA-26AC-4A9C-AC24-177873CD1C63
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DocuSign Envelope ID: 7E061FEA-26AC-4A9C-AC24-177873CD1C63