Paper or plastic? Lawmakers may soon decide
DENVER - One school teacher and his students had an idea, and now that idea could become law.
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Paul Gilden, a Kent Denver teacher, and his students were hoping their idea to phase out plastic bags would encourage consumers to re-use more eco-friendly cloth bags in large retail stores.
The idea became a bill and that bill is now in the hands of the legislature.
The bill will require stores over 10,000 square feet in size and over $1M in revenue to phase out plastic bags over three years. A fee-per-bag proposal was stripped out of the bill which would have charged consumers six cents per plastic bag for any that were given out.
However, the bill is facing opposition from some. There are concerns about the additional burdens on businesses in a tough economic climate, and the pros and cons of recycling paper have also been brought up in the debate. The food industry says the students' hearts are in the right place, but believe the bill is not fair and has some problems.
"We anticipate that that could even mean one of your large thrift stores, a non-profit, because the bill doesn't speak to whether it is non-profit or not," says Mary Lou Chapman, a spokesperson for the Rocky Mountain Food Industry Association. "Franchise stores are exempt, but privately-owned stores are not."
9NEWS invited two of the students behind the proposal to come in and discuss the bill.
"We did not want complaints from small businesses who would have a harder time adapting to this pretty dramatic change," says Mia Booth, a junior, in response to the criticism of only selecting certain stores to be included in the bill.
"Obviously, paper will be the next option," senior Alex Hoholik conceded on the point of needing to recycle paper bags and those environmental impacts. "But we hope that consumers will move more towards reusable bags and the cloth bags that can be used over and over and over again."
The second hearing of the bill will make its way through the senate on Friday afternoon and 9NEWS and 9NEWS.com will follow its progress.
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