Avon, Gypsum and Eagle also have joined a few dozen other ski towns in the “Plastic Bag Reduction Challenge,” which runs from March 1 to Sept. 1. The towns, community groups and stores will pass out reusable bags. The winner gets a grant from Alpine Bank to install solar panels on a local school.

The knock on plastic bags, of course, is that they are generally used once and then sent to the landfill, where they disintegrate into tinier and tinier particles over the next 2 million or so centuries.

Bringing cloth grocery bags to the supermarket, then, is a pretty painless way to change our behavior on behalf of our children, our children’s children, our children’s children’s children and so on.

The article goes on to stress a very important note: despite the hype and excitement through the duration of the challenge, this should be a habit-forming endeavor — a practice that should last long after summer has faded and the winners have been announced.

Originally the bill would have also required that stores charge customers 6 cents for every plastic bag they use between now and 2012. But the committee agreed to get rid of the fee at the request of bill sponsor Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver.

Republicans on the committee, who all voted against the ban, feared it could cause increased use of paper bags, which they said take more energy and water to make than plastic bags. Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, said it would make more sense to ban both.

“If you’re going to be extreme, be extreme all the way to the end,” he said.

While we’re all for eliminating plastic bag usage wherever possible, this does raise an excellent point — why not ban paper bags as well? The false dichotomy stands strong, as most people believe that the stoppage of one means necessitates widespread usage of the other. It’s quite true that paper bags are at times even worse than plastic: they take more energy and create more waste to make and recycle, and they are deceptively weak in biodegradable properties when sent to a landfill rather than a recycling plant. Banning plastic bags should not lead to everyone using paper bags, unless we are prepared to look into more efficient and eco-friendly means of making them.

Until then (if ever, which seems doubtful), at least some people know what’s up and what needs to be done.

All the talk of canvas bags made Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, nostalgic for shopping with her grandmother, who always brought her own bags.

“It wasn’t called recycling then. It was called economics,” she said.

Unfortunately, until everyone realizes the eventual economy and ecology of reusable bags, we may end up stuck in the circular “paper or plastic” argument for a very long time. But for now, Colorado is taking a step in the right direction.

Now it’s a new year, and the mountain towns are gearing up for a rematch. Word of this competition really got around, awesomely enough, and this time around a whopping 25 towns in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah have gotten on board to take the new and extended shopping bag challenge.

After the Telluride/Aspen challenge ended on a positive note, Dave Allen, who spearheaded the effort with Aspen’s Nathan Ratledge, started making phone calls to town managers and mayors of every town that’s a member of the Colorado Association of Ski Towns, trying to gin up interest for a new and bigger challenge.

“The success of the Telluride/Aspen plastic bag challenge was the driving force of taking this next step,” he said. “Basically, my objectives were to contact each of the towns … and just plant that seed.”

First, Breckenridge agreed to join. Then the rest of Summit County followed suit, and a flood of confirmations came in. Basalt and Silverthorne, Granby, Grand Lake, Winter Park and well as Park City, Utah, Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Ketchum, Idaho, are just a few that will be participating.

“It’s been just a matter of building momentum,” Allen said.

The contest will be running from March 1st to September 1st this time around, and the prize is the same — the gift of solar panel energy for a public school to the winning town. Let’s wish each and every town good luck on the contest! In a race like this, just signing up makes them all winners in our book.

• The rest of San Diego County may soon be following in Encinitas’ footsteps. [Sign On San Diego]
• Meanwhile, Gonzaga is following in the footsteps of all universities going green. [Gonzaga Bulletin]
• Concluding the Telluride/Aspen Plastic Bag Reduction Challenge: Telluride 1, Aspen 0. [Telluride Watch]
• North Carolina communities are making a heartfelt effort at replacing plastic bags. [The Appalachian]
• …and in South Carolina, a plastic bag factory is closing its doors. [Triangle Business Journal]
• Recycling is fashionable, and sometimes it IS fashion. [Ventura County Star]
• Florida’s Emerald Coast is all, “Paper or plastic? No, thank you!” [Emerald Coast]
• Japan is going to start recycling Nylon products. Hey, why not? [Trading Markets]
• Eugene-based Market of Choice is ditching the plastic. [NWCN]
• Plastic bags, served twenty-eight ways. [Green Eco Services]

Image via Flickr!