Towns in Three States Sign On

TELLURIDE — Last summer Telluride handily won a friendly competition with Aspen to see which ski town could use fewer lightweight, disposable plastic bags like those distributed at grocery stores, but this time around the win may not be such an easy one.

That’s because a total of 25 ski towns in Colorado, Utah, and Idaho – mostly members of the Colorado Association of Ski Towns – have signed up to participate in the evolution of last year’s pilot project, which was developed to raise awareness about the environmental and social costs of single-use plastic shopping bags, and to encourage customers to use reusable bags.

“I’m very excited about this,” said David Allen, who spearheaded the campaign during his tenure as project coordinator for the Sheep Mountain Alliance in collaboration with Nathan Ratledge of Aspen’s Community Office for Resource Efficiency.

“There are a couple [towns] that aren’t members of CAST, but we’re not going to turn them away,” he joked.

“It’s a pretty amazing thing that has been accomplished,” said Mayor Stu Fraser.

Allen began calling CAST mayors and town managers to solicit their support in November after Fraser laid the groundwork by pitching the idea to member municipalities at the organization’s October meeting in Vail.

“It was easy,” Allen said of his recruitment effort. “It was just a matter of selling it.”

He elaborated that in addition to contacting the governments in each town, he also enlisted help from local organizers already on the ground – a strategy he saw put to effective use last year, while working on President Barack Obama’s campaign.

Allen likened the plastic bag challenge to a sort of “gateway drug” in its ability to increase interest in environmental and sustainability efforts. It’s an easy task to undertake, but its implications can be much broader as people become more mindful of the throwaway culture in which we live.

“It’s such a low-hanging fruit,” he said.

While last year’s pilot program ran between Memorial and Labor Days, this year the challenge will run from March 1 through Sept. 1.

Additionally, whereas last year only grocery stores in participated in the challenge, this year it is open to any retailer in the communities that are taking part: Telluride, Mountain Village, Aspen, Avon, Basalt, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Dillon, Estes Park, Fraser, Frisco, Grand Lake, Granby, Minturn, Mt. Crested Butte, Silverthorne, Snowmass, Steamboat Springs, Vail, and Winter Park, Colo.; Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Park City, Utah; and Sun Valley, Ketchum, and Hailey, Ida.

As a result, Ace Hardware and Sunshine Pharmacy are joining Clark’s Market, the Village Market, and the Mountain Village Market in this year’s effort here in Telluride, Allen said.

Retailers will not be asked to donate five cents to a town’s green fund every time a reusable bag is used or bought at checkout like they were last year.

“Given the economic climate right now, I thought we’d get more buy-in without asking for a financial contribution,” Allen said.

Instead, they will track the number of reusable bags that come across their counters and checkouts. The community that tallies the most uses of reusable bags per capita will be declared the winner.

CAST member communities including Denver, Durango, Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs, declined to participate this year, according to Allen. But the thinking goes that with some support for the challenge at the state level, those larger markets may eventually come around.

“We’re trying to get a letter of support from Governor Ritter, which I think is a very real possibility if we keep banging on his door,” Allen said during an update on the challenge he gave to council on Tuesday.