Colorado Senate Supports Plastic Bag Ban

A Colorado Senate committee has taken the first step against disposable plastic bags this past week, backing Senate Bill 156 in a 4-3 vote. The decision followed a two-and-a-half hour presentation given by both sides of the debate, and if the bill goes all the way it would see a phasing out of plastic bags at big chain retailers within the state by 2012.

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.

Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 11:41 am and is filed under The Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.