It looks like grocery-store plastic bags are going to be sticking around for awhile in Colorado.
The state Senate today voted down a bill that would have banned distribution of the bags at checkout counters in grocery and big-box stores by the summer of 2012 — although there is still a slim possibility that senators could revive Senate Bill 156 before the day is done.
“This is an issue I believe the marketplace can ultimately take care of through private-sector education,” Sen. Mark Scheffel, R-Parker, said. “We don’t need government to get involved in this.”
Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, carried the bill and argued that it is an important environmental-protection measure. She said plastic bags contribute to landfill waste, soak up valuable petroleum used in their production, are rarely recycled and kill wildlife when they end up as litter. Coloradans consume about 600 million plastic bags a year, she said.
“I think we should all care whether we’re moving to a disposable society and whether we’re building up landfills and whether these things end up in the ocean and kill our land and marine-based life,” Veiga said.
Read more on this story, including where the idea for the bill came from and why Republican opponents say the bill is not environmentally friendly, at .
