After Colorado State House Bill 21-1162 created a ban on single-use plastic bags by 2023, one local Cortez resident realized how significant a problem they were: More than 30,000 plastic bags are provided through local stores in the Cortez area every day. She also knew that Cortez residents are hesitant to change their behavior without understanding why. So she decided to work with local retailers and nonprofits to distribute free reusable, washable, large capacity sacks and produce sacks to low-income individuals—and to build support for the effort by involving local students in the creation of multilingual educational materials about the benefits of reusable bags.
This project is fiscally sponsored by Onward! A Legacy Foundation.
Impact
After seeing the initial impact, store managers at Walmart, Safeway, and City Market donated hundreds more reusable bags to the cause and the City of Cortez is now working on additional forms of outreach to educate community members about House Bill 21-1162.
In The News
SUP2sack thanks LOR Foundation, retail stores and volunteers (Cortez Journal)
Cortez urged to stop using single-use plastic bags (Durango Herald)
