WINTER PARK, Colo.—Winter Park had decided it will join the adjacent town of Fraser in adopting a 20 cent single-use bag fee. That fee in Fraser goes into effect April 1.
Grocery and other retail stores must charge 20 cents per single-use bag in an effort to encourage use of reusable bags. As with Fraser, Winter Park intends to exempt produce and some other bags.
Similar to the fee structure of Fraser, Winter Park’s town government will keep a percentage of the fee for administrative purposes but also sustainability initiatives, while businesses will keep 40 per cent of the revenue, reported the Sky Hi News.
One of the Winter Park councillors voted again the fee, arguing that it won’t work in a place with many tourists. That, however, goes against the accumulating evidence in any number of other resort towns, including Telluride and other ski towns in Colorado. In Telluride, for example, lodges provide reusable cloth bags. Ditto for Aspen, Vail, and other towns. If it has been a problem, it hasn’t been showing up in the local papers.
Winter Park Mayor Jimmy Lahrman said as much. He said Winter Park is already behind the curve. “I think it’s a matter of how do we make it easy for people. I think once we’ve made it easy, we’re going to find that we get compliance.”
