Keeping Breck Beautiful

 "Starting on October 15, 2013 a fee of ten cents ($.10) will be charged for each disposable plastic and paper bag used by customers at all retail and grocery stores within the Town of Breckenridge. This fee is intended to encourage the use of reusable bags and dissuade the use of disposable bags, thereby furthering the Town’s sustainability efforts. Customers who use reusable bags at checkout will not be charged the $.10 per bag fee. Fee revenues are used to promote the use of reusable bags".  -Sustainable Breck
 

  The $.10 Bag Fee was adopted in 2011 with the main goal to reduce the use of disposable, single use, bags in town.  While we all understand the importance of helping our environment, do you think the Town of Breckenridge has chosen to implement the correct effort?  It's easy for a local to look at this new fee and see how it will play into their everyday life, but how it will affect our visitors is yet to be seen.  Unfortunately, at this time, there seems to be many 'silver linings' when it comes to charging this fee.  For example, the produce bags in the grocery store have no fee associated with them, but the checkout bags do.  Another example: a piece of jewelry is placed in one bag and therefore exempts the customer from the fee, but a baseball in that same bag would make that bag subject to the $.10 fee.  There are several more exemptions and regulations that exempt certain items from this fee.  You can view that list here.

     Consumers, visitors, and locals are not the only people affected by the bag fee ordinance.  Local business owners have to delve deep into the ordinance to ensure they are under compliance with the Town's fee.  A few examples of issues that store owners must understand are they cannot pay the fee for their customer, and unless the store owner distributes a bag that is 2.25 ml or thicker, their bags they will place retail items in are subject to the fee.  Plus they have to track bag sales, as well as sales that qualify the bags from being exempt.  The ordinance has so many loop holes that each business must understand every aspect and take into account any rules that apply to their business.

     What efforts are being made by business owners, the Town of Breckenridge and other companies to educate individuals and make sure visitors understand WHY there is a fee?  Most businesses throughout town have placed educational signage in their stores that help explain what the goal of this program is. Business owners have evaluated what bags they have in their store and how many they are giving out.  There have been Town of Breckenridge reusable bags created for convenience of visitors.  We at Ski Country Resorts are fortunate to be a "sustainable partner", therefore having reusable bags to pass out to our customers at no charge.  All in all, this is an effort to help reduce waste within our community.  That mind set may be carried into other towns, states and possibly countries.  Change starts in one place, and when embraced can spread easily and make for a positive outcome.  Help us keep Breck beautiful; read the literature on this ordinance and don't forget to bring your reusable bags to Breck!