Terry Webber

To ring in the new year, retailers across the Centennial State will be forced to charge shoppers a 10-cent fee per paper grocery bag, thanks to the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act (HB21-1162), a law passed by the Colorado General Assembly in July 2021 to limit single-use plastic bag usage across the state.

In their well-intentioned effort to reduce waste, however, lawmakers might actually hinder Colorado’s sustainability successes by including highly recyclable paper bags as part of the bill.

The Plastic Pollution Reduction Act fails to acknowledge the potential environmental side effects of reusable bags. And unlike paper bags, reusable bags are not typically compostable and are rarely accepted for curbside recycling.

In a cruel twist, the Plastic Pollution Act might actually increase the number of noncompostable and difficult-to-recycle bags circulating around Colorado, many of which could negatively affect the state’s sustainability efforts.

It’s worth noting that we know the effects of poorly written bag bans, thanks to similar bans enacted in other states.

Recently, New Jersey enacted a similar mandate that banned plastic and paper bags in stores and left consumers confused and overwhelmed by a massive influx of reusable, noncompostable bags.

The ban did not take into consideration e-commerce and online grocery shopping needs. Suddenly, New Jersey residents found themselves inundated by reusable bags as e-commerce and delivery services turned to the only available bagging option available under the ban.

As these bags began cluttering up homes, New Jerseyans voiced their frustrations to lawmakers and began to dispose of unwanted bags by throwing them away. In only a few months, a bill intended to reduce waste had created a novel waste problem of its own.

Sign up for free: Gazette Opinion

Receive updates from our editorial staff, guest columnists, and letters from Gazette readers. Sent to your inbox 12:00 PM.

Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

New Jersey lawmakers finally realized their error and are contemplating strides to correct it. State Sen. Bob Smith, originally a champion of the bag ban, has proposed changes to the newly enacted law that would explicitly allow retailers to use paper bags.

Colorado’s upcoming bag ban, with its alarming parallels to New Jersey’s, will be no different.

Paper bags can help solve this issue. Paper bags are 100% recyclable, and their fibers can be recovered and reused 5-7 times to make new paper products. The paper industry recycles about 50 million tons of recovered paper each year — more paper by weight recovered for recycling than aluminum, glass, steel, and plastic combined. In 2021, 68% of paper consumed in the U.S. was recycled — a rate on par with the highest rate previously achieved.

Paper recycling is an environmental success story in Colorado and across the United States. This success is largely due in part to the billions of dollars in industry investments. In fact, approximately $5 billion in manufacturing infrastructure investments have been planned or announced from 2019-2024 to continue the best use of recycled fiber in manufacturing our products.

The paper industry shares Colorado’s commitment to sustainability, and lawmakers should not paper over the valuable role that these sustainable products play in achieving the state’s environmental goals.

The bag ban should be reconsidered to permit the use of proven environmentally friendly options, like paper products, before we pay the price.

Terry Webber is vice president of Industry Affairs at the American Forest & Paper Association in Washington, D.C.

Terry Webber is Vice President of Industry Affairs at the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) in Washington, D.C.

Tags