{"id":798540,"date":"2019-08-14T18:30:32","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T00:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=369913"},"modified":"2019-08-14T18:30:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T00:30:32","slug":"frisco-approves-25-cent-single-use-bag-fee-on-first-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/frisco-approves-25-cent-single-use-bag-fee-on-first-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Frisco approves 25 cent single-use bag fee on first reading"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Plastic
Plastic bag in hand, a customer leaves a store in Frisco on Wednesday, Aug. 14<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Frisco is taking a stand on disposable bags.<\/p>\n

The Frisco Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve on first reading an ordinance that would place a fee on all disposable bags handed out by grocery stores and retail shops in town. If passed on second reading later this month, town officials hope the ordinance serves as a helpful reminder for residents not to leave their reusable bags at home next time they hit the store.<\/p>\n

The move comes as a direct result of the town\u2019s strategic plan<\/a>, wherein the town laid out a number of sustainability goals, including raising the issue of waste reduction and slowing the usage of paper and plastic bags.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our priorities in helping to improve and sustain the environment was to bring forward a discussion about how to discourage the use of one-time bags and encourage the use of reusable bags,\u201d said Nancy Kerry, Frisco\u2019s town manager, who presented the ordinance to the council Tuesday night. \u201cBanning bags in Colorado is prohibited strictly by law. The next best thing is price and the usage of price to change behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

If passed, Frisco will join at least 10 other Colorado municipalities with fees, including Aspen, Fraser and Vail. The ordinance resembles a similar law that went into effect in Breckenridge in 2013<\/a>, which charges customers 10 cents for most paper and plastic bags throughout town.<\/p>\n

Frisco\u2019s ordinance goes a little further, however, as council members felt that the proposed 10 cent fee<\/a> might not be enough of a deterrent to make a difference. Instead, the town is hoping to implement a 25 cent fee, the highest in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn (communities) that don\u2019t have a huge influx of visitors shopping, you might see higher rates of success than with people that maybe see it as a necessity and continue to pay it,\u201d Councilwoman Jessica Burley said. \u201cI think 10 cents is increasingly a moot point. It\u2019s no longer the price point that hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed fee would go into effect Jan. 1 to give retailers sufficient time to educate their customers and implement the process. Stores would be responsible for collecting and remitting the fees, though for the first year, stores would be allowed to keep 50% of any fees collected up to $1,000 a month. After the first year, stores could keep as much as $100 a month. Frisco would collect the rest.<\/p>\n

Because the change would be a fee instead of a voter-approved tax, the scope of how the town could spend that money is relatively narrow \u2014 requiring the town to use the funds only for expenditures intended to mitigate the effects of disposable bags, including providing reusable bags, education efforts, installing new recycling and waste containers, funding community cleanup days and similar undertakings. The ordinance also requires the establishment of a \u201cdisposable bag fee public outreach plan\u201d to help educate consumers about the fee.<\/p>\n

Of note, there has been some pushback to efforts to establish fees<\/a> in other Colorado towns. In 2012, the Colorado Union of Taxpayers sued Aspen claiming the city had essentially passed an illegal 20 cent tax on disposable bags. After years in court, the Colorado Supreme Court gave a decision on the case in May last year<\/a>, ruling that Aspen\u2019s fee was lawful and didn\u2019t require a public vote.<\/p>\n

Disposable bags are defined in the ordinance as \u201cany bag, other than a reusable bag, that is provided to a customer by a retailer at the point of sale for the purpose of transporting goods.\u201d There are some exemptions, including for participants in state or federal food assistance programs and for bags used inside stores for things like produce.<\/p>\n

The ordinance will return to the council for second reading and public comment Aug. 27.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plastic bag in hand, a customer leaves a store in Frisco on Wednesday, Aug. 14Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 Frisco is taking a stand on disposable bags. The Frisco Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve on first reading an ordinance that would place a fee on all disposable bags handed out by grocery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-798540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 03:49:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}