Durango Bag It aims for a plastic bag-free City of Durango! 
The Durango Bag It Campaign is pushing the City of Durango to consider banning single-use plastic bags. The bag ban is expected to go before the City Council for a vote sometime in early 2013. Our community and environment need your participation.
Sign our petition! We have over 1,000 signatures in support of such a ban, and we need to continue to grow this momentum.
Durango Bag It is thinking globally and acting locally.
As Durango jumps on the national "Ban the Bag" bandwagon, we hope to follow in the footsteps of the nearby mountain town of Telluride, which enacted a plastic bag ban ordinance in 2010. Banning single-use plastic bags provides a practical application for a larger goal of working toward becoming a zero waste community.
Learn more about Bag It:
- Visit the Durango Bag It Website
- Sign the Durango Bag It Petition
- Visit the Durango Bag It Facebook page. "Like" Us on Facebook to receive regular updates about the campaign.
Recent news about Bag It:
- "Banning the Bag: Durango can bolster its image with a leadership role" Durango Herald, 1/22/12
- "Ban all activities that burden landfill" Durango Herald, 1/09/12
- "Add your voice to the Movement to ban plastic bags" Durango Herald, 1/05/12
- "Bag It Discussion Has Gotten People Thinking" Durango Herald, 1/04/12
- "All of our Actions Affect Each Other" Durango Herald, 1/03/12
- "Switching Away from Plastic is Easier than it Seems" Durango Herald, 1/01/12
- "Banning Plastic Bags Would Save People Money" Durango Herald, 12/27/11
- "Seattle Officials Ban Plastic Bags" Durango Herald, 12/20/11
- "Taking Shopping Elsewhere to Flee Bag Ban Does Not Compute" Durango Herald, 12/19/11
- "Bag Ban Worth the Cost of Freedom" Durango Herald 12/19/11
- "Rid Plastic Bags by Education, Not Government" Durango Herald 12/16/11
- "Don't Limit Business, Choice with Bag Ban" Durango Herald 12/16/11
- "Argument for Bag Ban Debunk Those Against the Proposal" Durango Herald 12/12/11
- "Bag ban: Good or bad?" Durango Herald, 12/07/11
- Screening of the film Bag It at the Smiley Theater, 11/17/11 (see flyer below). Afternoon screening at Durango High School to a large crowd of students.
- Opposition to the Bag It Campaign, Durango Herald, 11/17/11
- "Banning single-use bags no brainer first step," Durango Herald, 11/14/11
- "Group wants you to 'bag it,'" Durango Herald, 11/12/11
- "Is it time to bag plastic?" Durango Herald, 6/15/11
Ways to get involved and take action:
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Attend a Durango City Council meeting and voice your concerns about why you want to see this happen
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Join us on our Durango Bag It Facebook page for more conversations, sharing, and brainstorming
Communities in Colorado Banning Plastic Bags:
Plastic Bag Bio: The Story Behind the Bag
We go through 380 billion plastic bags a year, costing us 1.6 billion gallons of oil a year, oil that would be better served for other more vital things. We then throw the bags in a landfill--the ones that stay there, that is. Billions of bags end up blowing around as litter and end up in our oceans, killing millions of sea creatures every year. An estimated 90% of all debris floating in the world's oceans is plastic. It comes from many countries, but a lot less now comes from such nations as China, Ireland, and Italy, which have banned retail plastic bags. In the U.S., there is a budding but rapidly growing movement to "ban the bag."
Like the ban on smoking, which started in local communities and went national, the banning of plastic bags will follow a similar path, though much more quickly. A few examples of cities that have already 'banned the bag' are San Francisco, CA, Telluride, CO, and Brownsville, TX. Let's be a community that helps lead this important local and global issue.
A FEW FACTS ABOUT PLASTIC BAGS THAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW:
- Approximately 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United States every year. That’s more than 1,200 bags per U.S. resident, per year.
- Approximately 100 billion of the 380 billion bags are plastic shopping bags.
- An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.
- Only 1% to 2% of plastic bags in the U.S. end up getting recycled.
- Thousands of marine animals and more than 1 million birds die each year as a result of plastic pollution.
- Plastic bags are often mistakenly ingested by animals, clogging their intestines which results in death by starvation. Other animals or birds become entangled in plastic bags and drown or can’t fly as a result.
- Even when they photo-degrade in landfill, the plastic from single-use bags never goes away, and toxic particles can enter the food chain when they are ingested by unsuspecting animals.
- At least 267 marine species are known to have suffered from getting entangled in or ingesting marine debris. Nearly 90% of that debris is plastic.
They're perhaps a little better, perhaps not, depending on what you look at:
- Paper production requires hundreds of thousands of gallons of water as well as toxic chemicals like sulphurous acid, which can lead to acid rain and water pollution.
- Americans consume more than 10 billion paper bags per year. Approximately 14 million trees are cut down every year for paper bag production.
- Most of the pulp used for paper shopping bags is virgin pulp, as it is considered stronger.
THE BETTER OPTION?
Bring your own reusable bags, and help cut down on the resource use and overall waste.
Want to find out more about what's happening locally? Check out the recent Durango Herald article "Is it time to bag plastic?"
Interested in what's happening internationally? Watch the YouTube CNN interview with Philippe Cousteau.
