Colorado Legislators Vote to Keep Ten-Cent Fee on Paper Bags

Hang on to your reusable grocery bags. Colorado's single-use bag fee is here to stay.

State legislators voted down an effort to repeal a recent law that requires retailers to charge ten cents for single-use paper bags. That proposal, House Bill 1051, failed in a party-line vote, with nine Democrats voting against the measure and four Republicans voting in favor of it during a House Energy and Environment Committee meeting on Thursday, February 6.

The bag fee has been in place since the beginning of 2024; it was part of a law passed in 2021 that banned single-use plastic bags in the state. Minority Leader Rose Pugliese said the bag fee was the most common complaint she heard from her constituents while going door-to-door last year.

"The literal nickel-and-diming of Coloradans is the thing that upset them," said Pugliese, co-sponsor of House Bill 1051, during Thursday's committee. "They feel like they can't handle anymore. For a lot of people, ten cents really matter and ten cents really adds up."

Supporters of the bag fee say it helps reduce waste and protect the environment by incentivizing Coloradans to use fewer single-use paper bags and instead shift to reusable alternatives. The majority of the money goes to local governments to fund providing reusable bags, addressing plastic pollution or pursuing other sustainability projects, with the rest of the money going to the individual retailers.

"Banning plastic bags without a fee on paper only shifts the waste from plastic to paper," said Henry Stiles of Environment Colorado, in opposition to repealing the fee. "Local governments rely on these fees. ...The revenue makes a real difference in helping communities prevent waste at the sources."

But not all local governments are on board. El Paso County, Mesa County, Weld County and Colorado Counties Inc. registered in support of repealing the bag fee.

Park County Commissioner Amy Mitchell said of the 46 qualifying retailers in her county, only three or four collect the fee and pass on revenue to the local government. The rest have opted to not provide paper bags at all. In 2024, the county received just $750 from the bag fee, less than the cost to implement and enforce the new bag laws, according to Mitchell.

"It is a burden to our small retailers," Mitchell testified during committee. "It is a burden on small governments that do not receive any net revenue on this. It is actually an unfunded burden and mandate on small population counties."

Meanwhile, Boulder County, Larimer County and the cities of Boulder and Fort Collins registered against repealing the bag fee (those municipalities had their own local bag fees before the statewide law was passed). Several environmental groups also opposed HB 1051, including Colorado Communities for Climate Action, 350 Colorado, Conservation Colorado and GreenLatinos.

There were 28 witnesses registered to testify on the bill on Thursday, split evenly between support and opposition, according to legislative records.

"It was really never about the ten cents," said Representative Alex Valdez, one of the Democratic sponsors of the 2021 law that established the bag fee.

"The ten cents purely exists to offset the behavior that was leading to a lot of single-use waste that's harmful to a lot of our communities," he continued. "We're very sensitive to the cost aspects. What I've heard is that most people have adjusted at this point and do bring their own reusable bags with them. ... To pass a bill that would incentivize the use of more paper bags would be counterproductive."

House Bill 1051 was one of two bills seeking to reverse recently passed state laws, both sponsored by freshman Republican Representative Ryan Gonzalez. His other bill, House Bill 1074 to eliminate cage-free egg regulations, similarly failed along party lines during a committee vote on January 27.

Gonzalez said in a year when the state budget is so restricted and tax cuts won't be popular among legislators, he's looking for any way to save his constituents money. He spoke of a twelve-year-old girl in his district who he says carries grocery items home by hand because her family cannot afford to pay ten cents for a paper bag.

"What are some ways that we can provide immediate relief to our low-income people, working families, people who are struggling to make ends meet?" Gonzalez said. "Rich people don't care about ten cents...it's the people who are struggling who care."