Fort Collins likely to adjust plastic bag ban to align with new Colorado law

Plastic bags and Styrofoam takeout containers aren't long for this world in Fort Collins.

First, the city’s voter-approved ban on single-use plastic bags at large grocery stores will take effect May 1. City leaders are planning a few changes to that policy to align it with a state law that has broader scope. One of them will decrease the fee for paper bags from the voter-approved 12 cents to 10 cents.

As shoppers and grocers adapt to the new bag policy, two more changes from the state law will be on the horizon. Come 2024, plastic bags will be banned at most stores and restaurants, and expanded polystyrene/Styrofoam containers (including cups) will be banned at restaurants and other “retail food establishments.”

Small stores with three locations or fewer, if they're all in Colorado, will be exempted from the plastic bag ban but not the Styrofoam ban.

About 60% of Fort Collins voters approved the plastic bag ban in the April 2021 election. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed the state legislation, HB21-1162, into law in July. Local policy is allowed to be as strict or stricter than the state law, so the passage of the state legislation created uncertainty about the local policy. City staff have been reviewing the state law and speaking with community members about implementation and potential changes.

They came up with these proposed changes, which will get formal review by Fort Collins City Council in February:

• Reduce the paper bag fee from 12 cents to 10 cents to align with the state law.

• Split the paper bag fee 60-40 between the city and grocers, with the larger share going to the city, instead of the voter-approved 50-50.

• Allow for more exemptions to the paper bag fee, such as for people with disabilities and people facing medical hardship. (The city already planned to exempt people who participate in federal, state and local income-qualified programs from the fee.)

Council members said they liked the staff-recommended changes during a discussion at their Tuesday work session.

The city isn’t planning to change the implementation date for the plastic bag ban at large grocery stores. Large grocers are retail stores at least 10,000 square feet in size that sell at least four of the following food types: staple foods, meat, produce, dairy, frozen food or other perishable items for human consumption. Beavers Market (which is being rebranded to Fresh Foods after the store was sold late last year) and Mountain Avenue Market are smaller than 10,000 square feet, for a size reference.

More city news: Fort Collins' annual State of the City event to be held virtually

The plastic bag ban applies only to single-use, point-of-sale plastic bags — the kind used to bag your groceries, not trash bags or bags for bulk items, produce or medicine, for example.

City staff want to change the split of the paper bag fee so the city would be aligned with the state's 10-cent fee but still get 6 cents per paper bag, which staff estimate would cover the cost of implementation. The program is meant to be revenue neutral for the city, creating neither profit nor uncovered expense.

The smaller portion for grocers would mean less money for the stores to cover the cost of paper bags. When staff spoke with grocery store representatives about the change, most said they’d prefer consistent policy throughout the state to getting more cents per bag, senior sustainability specialist Molly Saylor said. The state law also requires a 60-40 split.

Staff spoke with more than 40 grocers and disproportionately impacted community members to get feedback about the policy. They said most of the people they spoke with were ready for the change, some were supportive but wanted help with implementation and access to reusable bags, and a small portion disliked all or part of the policy.

Some people were dissatisfied with the ban because they prefer to use plastic bags or like to reuse them around the house. Others were concerned about the paper bag fee having a disproportionate impact on people with disabilities or medical needs. For example, someone who has their groceries delivered because of a disability or a medical condition wouldn’t be able to use reusable bags and would therefore have to pay the paper bag fee. Some people with disabilities also have a harder time handling paper bags.

Council priorities: Here's what you can expect from Fort Collins City Council in 2022

Staff sought to address that concern by recommending an allowance for more exemptions to the bag fee. It’s not yet clear exactly what those exemptions would look like. The exemption for people who participate in income-qualified programs is clearer cut, because they can show a benefits card to the cashier to qualify for the exemption. The city will need to figure out eligibility standards for other fee-exempt groups.

The allowance for exemptions is the only part of local policy that would be less stringent than state policy. Mayor Jeni Arndt said Tuesday that the city needs to consider the possibility of a state lawsuit over the less-strict condition, though council member Kelly Ohlson countered that he didn’t think a lawsuit over the exemptions seemed likely.

Council and staff also talked about how the new policy will work for people who have their groceries delivered or do store pickup. The answer isn’t clear yet, but Saylor said staff is exploring options such as having grocery store staff place groceries directly in car trunks without bags or using cardboard boxes. Another option could be a reusable bag deposit system, where customers pay a deposit for reusable bags that they get back when they return the bags to the store. Saylor said the city will keep working with grocery stores on how to tackle the bag issue for pickup and delivery.

Meanwhile, city staff have launched an education campaign called “Bag to the Future” to inform more residents about the coming change. They sent out the first wave of reusable cotton bags to 1,300 households, three per household, along with information and tips about the new bag policy. Distributing free reusable bags to lower-income people in particular will be part of the implementation plan.

The changes to the local policy will come back to council at an upcoming meeting, likely in February. Council members said they feel the community is largely ready for the change, which council had been working to place on the ballot since 2020.

"When I go shopping, I always look to see what people are bringing into the store with them, and there's a lot of folks who are bringing their bags with them," council member Susan Gutowsky said. "It's just evolved. (Reusable bags are) catching on. I don't think it'll be as big a shock as we might have thought a year ago."

Jacy Marmaduke covers government accountability for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter @jacymarmaduke. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins to adjust plastic bag ban to align with Colorado law