Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
      • 2023 winners
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Bioplastics Live
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Resin Prices Overview
    • Commodity Thermoplastics
    • High Temperature Thermoplastics
    • Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Thermosets
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
March 16, 2021 12:51 PM

As Colorado debates plastic ban, industry supports packaging tax

Steve Toloken
Assistant Managing Editor
Plastics News Staff
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Buck Ennis, Crain's New York Business

    Colorado is joining the scrum of states trying to ban plastic bags and expanded polystyrene containers, but in a sign of how the politics are shifting, the plastics industry has a new comeback: Tax us instead.

    As an alternative to a ban, the American Chemistry Council is supporting legislation in the state that would put a three-tenths of a penny fee on all foodservice ware, not just plastic, to fund recycling and composting programs.

    It's not a completely new idea for the plastics industry. ACC first proposed a similar fee in California in 2019.

    But as the plastics ban picks up steam in the Colorado Legislature, the industry is formally endorsing packaging fee legislation, which was introduced March 10 by a different group of lawmakers. It would create a state board that could raise fees up to 1 cent if recycling rate targets are not met.

    At the March 11 hearing to debate the ban bill, supporters and opponents testified and lawmakers parleyed for nearly four hours before legislators on one statehouse committee voted 8-5 to move the ban forward to another committee.

    "With this bill, we can take … two pieces of very important and very impactful plastic out of circulation, two unrecyclable types of plastic out of circulation, over time," said Rep. Alex Valdez, D-Denver, one of the sponsors of the ban bill. "We can't recycle our way out of this crisis."

    But plastics industry representatives argued that the state can — and should — do much more to support recycling.

    Omar Terrie, director of ACC's plastic foodservice packaging, told the hearing that ACC supports the fee legislation, SB-180, as a way to raise money to build recycling and composting systems.

    "We support a lot of different ideas that would bring recycling infrastructure to Colorado by putting a fee on foodservice ware across the board; it would be material neutral," Terrie said.

    "That would allow us to develop the recycling and the composting infrastructure that's needed in the state in order to get not only polystyrene foam, but alternatives to polystyrene foam, throughout the entire foodservice market, to be recyclable and to get that recycling rate up," he said, cautioning lawmakers to weigh the environmental impact of other materials.

    All sides seem to agree that recycling must be improved.

    Ban supporters pointed to a recent report from the Colorado Public Interest Research Group that said the state's recycling rate for all materials was 15.9 percent in 2019, down from 17.2 percent a year earlier. The group said that was well below the national recycling rate of 35 percent.

    As well, figures from the Environmental Protection Agency show the recycling rate for polystyrene containers and packaging across the U.S. was only 3.6 percent in 2018, the most recent year statistics are available.

    Ban supporters say they want to address pollution and human health costs from plastics production and what they say are market failures to build recycling systems for those products.

    Rep. Emily Sirota, D-Denver, said lawmakers are "not taking on all plastics" but are focused on retail bags and EPS containers in restaurants because they're widely used.

    "We've talked about how cheap plastic is, and that is why it is so widely used," Sirota said. "It is cheap because we socialize the costs of plastic. These costs are actually offloaded to communities."

     

    Recycling skeptics

    One local environmental group told lawmakers it was skeptical of plastic industry claims of recyclability.

    "The ACC has promised for years that they have technology that can recycle this material, but it's not shown a plan or a way to do it," said Jonathan Greenspan, with the Waste to Energy Citizen Action Network, in Telluride.

    The industry-backed fee bill would create a new board within the state's Department of Public Health and Environment and give it power to issue revenue bonds and dole out the funds from the packaging fees.

    The fee bill, which has its own hearing scheduled for March 22, would also require the state government to calculate recycling rates for foodservice packaging in Colorado.

    The new board could raise fees up to 1 cent if recycling rates don't reach at least 50 percent by 2030 and 75 percent by 2035.

    ACC's Terrie told lawmakers that EPS is being recycled elsewhere in the United States, pointing to a facility in Indiana, and he urged the state to give more support to market development for recycled materials.

    Zachary Taylor, director of the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance, said the industry's take-back programs to collect bags in stores can recycle them into plastic lumber, asphalt or new bags.

    "Almost every life cycle assessment that has been conducted has found that plastic film bags, reusable carryout bags are the ones with the least environmental impacts compared to some of these other reusable bags, which have to be used many more times to offset their higher environmental impacts related to the emissions and energy used to produce them," he said.

     

    Preemption debate

    The ban bill would also overturn a Colorado law currently on the books that prevents cities from passing their own local ordinances against plastic products, a policy called preemption.

    But removing preemption drew strong opposition from the state's retailers and restaurants, who said it would raise their costs by forcing them to comply with different local ordinances. It led to questions from lawmakers in favor of the ban about what changes could be made to secure the support of those groups.

    "The largest concern is the section that would allow local governments to regulate plastics in the manner that they see fit," said Nick Hoover, manager of government relations with the Colorado Restaurant Association.

    Similarly, the Colorado Retail Council said the "hardest part" of the ban bill was overturning preemption. It said it would move from opposing the bill to neutral if the ban supporters dropped their attempt to get rid of preemption.

    But several local government officials testified that they wanted lawmakers to stick with their plan to dump preemption, saying that current limits in state law "hamstrings" their ability to regulate plastics as they feel is needed.

    Delanie Young, mayor of Telluride, said her community was the first in Colorado to ban plastic bags, and it uses fees charged for paper bags to distribute reusable bags. She said the town depends on a clean environment for tourism.

    "The repeal of the preemption language … is crucial for all of us at the local level to truly take actions that will make significant change in our unique communities," she said.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Production returning to normal in Europe with lower natural gas prices
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    PP resin prices saw a big drop in May
    2
    Plastics lead growth at Palmer Holland, new CEO says
    3
    Stelray boosts capabilities by adding its largest press
    4
    Resin Prices
    5
    Resin Prices - North America
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
          • 2023 winners
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • Bioplastics Live
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Resin Prices Overview
      • Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temperature Thermoplastics
      • Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Recycled Plastics
      • Thermosets
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified