Maybe you’ve been there: you’re at the grocery checkout and you get the question. It used to be “Paper or plastic?” but now in Colorado it’s “How many bags do you want to buy?” »

Coloradans have been facing this question for nearly a year since the state banned single-use plastic bags. And if you overbought the reusable bags you brought or forgot them in the car, you’ll have to pay for the bags. Ten cents a piece.

These charges began in January – and a CPR listener asked Colorado Wonders about it. Do baggage fees make money? And where is he going?

Local and national ban

The statewide ban on disposable plastic bags took effect in 2024 as part of the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act. The law was passed in 2021. It required large businesses to stop providing single-use plastic takeout bags by January 1.

The Colorado Department of Revenue does not collect or enforce the fees. This responsibility lies with municipalities and county government.

“We take a reactive approach. So we rely on retailers to collect these fees from their customers, and that doesn’t mean it’s within the city’s jurisdiction to audit bag fee collection,” said Danny Nunn, interim CFO from the town of Pueblo. “But at the moment it’s sort of a question of the retailer’s honor…”

Sixty percent of tax revenue goes to the municipalities and counties where the stores are located. Companies can keep the remaining 40 percent.

Denver had a pretty smooth transition when the ban expanded statewide — the city had a head start. The Denver City Council passed the law to implement 10 cent fee on single-use plastic bags end of 2019. It came into force on July 1, 2021.

State bag fee rules exempt small businesses with three or fewer stores from charging the fee. But Denver had already gone further.

“Denver’s ordinance has always included small stores. And because state law requires municipalities to implement the policy as strictly or more strictly than state law, we are able to enforce the plastic bag ban to all stores in Denver, regardless of size or number of locations,” said Natalie Lana, Denver Disposable Bag Fee Program Administrator Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resilience.

How much do local authorities receive? How do they use it?

Through its share of baggage fees, Denver earned $697,669 in 2024 and $6.2 million in revenue since the fees were implemented. Aurora collected $1,661,000 in fees.

Other places like Pueblo don’t get millions of dollars. They only made $300,000 from the fees. Local governments typically recycle their discounts into the baggage fee program.

“Disposable bag fee revenue has been used to fund (Denver’s) truly innovative programs to reduce waste, such as helping restaurants transition to reusable food clothing for food service and support of events aimed at reducing waste through reusable and returnable containers,” said Lana. .

Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

This includes the Reuse Denver program that helps small restaurants save money by replacing disposable serving utensils with reusable restaurant items like plates, bowls, cups or cutlery.

Aurora uses the funds for its shopping cart cleanup initiative and for future initiatives such as city beautification efforts.

How do businesses use money?

Companies also use their fee reduction to promote the program through education and signage.

Chris Howes is the president of Colorado Retail Council. Since 1998, he has lobbied for the Retail Council, which represents Colorado’s largest grocery and retail stores and with bill sponsors for the fees. Howse said the transition was relatively easy.

“We went to great lengths to put up signs and prepare customers before the law took effect, but here we are among those states that ban single-use plastic bags at checkouts statewide,” Howes said. “We kind of prepared customers through point-of-sale signage and, of course, we were allowed to look at the existing inventory of plastic bags that stores had. Of course, not just thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of reusable plastic bags. This time is therefore over, the time of transition is over, and this is the law from now on. »

Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Even if application is not specifically provided for in the billHowse said all Retail Council members were in compliance.

“I think in general this is followed. I haven’t heard anyone say there is widespread misuse or that it doesn’t follow state law. So I haven’t heard any feedback from customers or members that it didn’t go smoothly,” Howes said. “There are certainly customers who disagree with this, but that has nothing to do with retailers following the law that has been implemented.”

Some might view paying a 10 cent per bag fee for something as small as a paper bag as another way for the government to make money. This does not apply to these particular charges.

In fact, it does the opposite. Lana said the goal is not to raise more revenue but to reduce the amount of use of disposable bags. She said there had been a drop in revenue because more people were using fewer disposable bags.

“This is a very good thing and an indicator of success for us. We have, I think, on average 5 million fewer disposable bags every year in Denver because of this program,” Lana said.

It’s safe to say that it’s a tax that cities are happy to lose money on as long as they help the environment.